Enhancing The Effectiveness of Moral Suasion As A Policy Instrument
Moral suasion is used when economically rational individual behaviours of economic agents do not maximise collective welfare. Moral suasion will therefore be a more effective policy tool if these rational economic agents can be persuaded that it is in their long-term interest to comply with the intended government policies, even when they are not profit-maximising in the short run.
This can be done in two ways. First, governments can build a high level of trust between themselves and market participants. This can be achieved through good governance, clear communication, and a delivering on their promises. Second, governments can ensure that their threats are seen as credible by acting on them and publicising their actions, so that future non-compliance will be deterred.
Gaining the support of the population is also increases the effectiveness of moral suasion. This can be done through active citizen participation in the government decisionning process as well as information and publicity campaigns.
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Famous quotes containing the words moral, policy and/or instrument:
“The drive toward knowledge has a moral origin.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Since body and soul are radically different from one another and belong to different worlds, the destruction of the body cannot mean the destruction of the soul, any more than a musical composition can be destroyed when the instrument is destroyed.”
—Oscar Cullman. Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? The Witness of the New Testament, ch. 1, Epworth Press (1958)