Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to consider if self-employed entrepreneurs, a class of individuals who require enforceable property rights to create new firms and ideas that could increase a society’s material living standards, constitute an individual property rights enforcement mechanism. Design/methodology/approach - With data from the General Social Survey, the authors estimate the parameters of mixed-effects categorical regression specifications to measure the effect of self-employment on confidence in the US Supreme Court, raising and donating funds for social or political activities, and on trying to persuade others to share political views. Findings - The findings suggest that self-employed entrepreneurs are one of the guarantors of a constitutional democracy based on an ethic of individual property rights, and public policies that are pro-entrepreneurship help mitigate the risk of constitutional failure, and maximize society’s material living and ethical standards. Research limitations/implications - The results are based on cross-sectional data, which do not account for dynamic changes in preferences. Practical implications - The findings suggest that self-employed entrepreneurs are a enforcement mechanism and a guarantor of an ethic of private property rights necessary for the ongoing success and viability of a constitutional democracy based on individual property rights. Social implications - The findings suggest that as entrepreneurs constitute an enforcement mechanism for individual property rights, to the extent that entrepreneurialism also cultivates individual virtue entrepreneurs also serve as guarantors of a moral and ethical society that is based on virtue, which results in a constitutional democracy with high material living and ethical/moral standards. Originality/value - This paper is among the first to empirically test whether entrepreneurs are an enforcement mechanism for individual property rights.

中文翻译：

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企业家

目的-本文的目的是考虑自雇企业家，一类需要强制执行产权来创建新公司的个人以及可以提高社会物质生活水平的想法是否构成了个人产权执行机制。设计/方法论/方法-利用一般社会调查的数据，作者估计混合效果分类回归指标的参数，以衡量个体经营对美国最高法院的信心，为社会或政治筹集和捐赠资金的影响活动，以及试图说服他人分享政治观点。调查结果-调查结果表明，个体经营者是基于个人产权伦理的宪政民主的保证人之一，有利于企业家精神的公共政策有助于降低宪法失败的风险，并最大限度地提高社会的物质生活和道德标准。研究的局限性/意义-结果基于横截面数据，没有考虑偏好的动态变化。实际意义-研究结果表明，个体经营者是执法机制，也是私有产权伦理的保证人，这是基于个人产权的立宪民主制的持续成功和生存所必需的。社会影响-研究结果表明，企业家是个人财产权的强制执行机制，在某种程度上，企业家精神还可以培养个人美德。企业家还可以充当基于美德的道德和伦理社会的担保人，这导致了具有高物质生活和道德/道德标准的宪政民主。原创性/价值-本文是第一个以经验检验企业家是否为个人财产权执行机制的研究。