Most political liberals argue that only rules, policies and institutions that are part of society’s basic structure need to be justified with so-called public reasons. Laws enacted outside this set are legitimate if and when public reasons can justify the procedure that selects them. I argue that this view is susceptible to known problems from social choice theory. However, there are resources within political liberalism that could address them. If the scope of public reason is extended beyond the basic structure it could order people’s preferences in a way that circumvents the identified issues.

中文翻译：

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公共理性程序主义的社会选择问题

大多数政治自由主义者认为，只有作为社会基本结构一部分的规则、政策和制度才需要用所谓的公共理由来证明其正当性。如果公共原因可以证明选择它们的程序是正当的，则在该集合之外制定的法律是合法的。我认为这种观点容易受到社会选择理论中已知问题的影响。然而，政治自由主义中有一些资源可以解决这些问题。如果公共理性的范围超出了基本结构，它可能会以规避已确定问题的方式排列人们的偏好。