BharatNotes Laissez-faire
noun; also adjective (attributive, as in "a laissez-faire approach")Usage in a UPSC answer
India's post-1991 liberalisation did not amount to an unqualified embrace of laissez-faire; rather, the state retreated from production while reinventing itself as a regulator, recognising that unfettered markets, left wholly to themselves, tend to neglect equity, the environment and the interests of the unorganised poor.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
laissez-faire (adj), laissez-fairism (n), laissez-faireist (n)
Root
French laisser = to let (Latin laxāre = to loosen) + faire = to do (Latin facere); lit. 'let do'
Etymology
From French laissez faire ("let [them] do," literally "leave to do"), from laisser ("to let," from Latin laxāre, "to loosen") and faire ("to do," from Latin facere); associated with the 18th-century French Physiocrats.
Memory Hook
French "laissez faire" = "let (them) do" — picture a lazy ("laissez" sounds like 'lay-say', a lazy 'let it be' shrug) regulator who lays back and says "fair enough, do as you please" — the state keeps its hands off the market.
How This Word Works in UPSC Writing
The doctrine that the state should not interfere in economic life, resting on the claim that competition and the price mechanism allocate resources better than official direction and that individuals pursuing their own interest produce collective benefit. Two qualifications belong in any answer. It was never practised in pure form, since even its advocates accepted navigation laws, poor relief and eventually factory legislation, and the nineteenth-century British state grew rather than shrank as regulation of hours, sanitation and education followed industrialisation. And its colonial application was self-serving, since laissez-faire was invoked to justify withholding famine relief on the ground that markets would correct themselves, while tariff policy continued to favour British manufactures. The standard analytical objection is market failure, in externalities, public goods, monopoly and asymmetric information, where unregulated markets demonstrably do not produce efficient outcomes.
Don’t Confuse It With
Laissez-faire holds that the state should not interfere in economic life generally, while free trade is the narrower doctrine that it should not restrict imports and exports. Mercantilism is the earlier doctrine that laissez-faire displaced. The welfare state is its practical opposite, with the state assuming responsibility for social security. Market failure names the situations, such as externalities, public goods and monopoly, in which unregulated markets do not allocate efficiently, and is the principal objection to the doctrine.
Hindi Meaning
अहस्तक्षेप नीति (ahastakshep nīti) or मुक्त बाज़ार नीति.
Common Questions
- Was laissez-faire ever practised in its pure form?
- No. Even its advocates accepted navigation laws, poor relief and factory legislation, and the British state expanded its regulatory role through the nineteenth century.
- How was laissez-faire used in colonial India?
- It was invoked to justify withholding famine relief on the argument that markets would correct themselves, while trade policy continued to favour British manufactures.
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