Given the growing prominence of nudge economics both within and beyond the academy, it is a timely moment to reassess the philosophical and political arguments that sit at its core, and in particular what Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein call libertarian paternalism. The first half of this paper provides a detailed account of the main features of this form of paternalism, before moving, in the second half, to a critical evaluation of the nudge agenda that questions, among other things, the gendered basis of paternalistic governance; the idea of ‘nudging for good’; and the political values that underpin nudge. The final section of this paper builds on the existing work of John McMahon by asking whether libertarian paternalism should be understood as a new, hybrid form of neoliberalism, or, rather, as a post-neoliberal form of governance that has emerged out of, and flourished in, the post-crisis situation.

鉴于在学院内外的轻推经济学日趋重要，现在是时候重新评估其核心的哲学和政治论据，尤其是理查德·泰勒和卡斯·桑斯坦所称的自由主义家长制。本文的前半部分详细介绍了这种家长式管理形式的主要特征，然后在下半部分中对轻推议程进行批判性评估，该问题尤其质疑家长式管理的性别基础；“善待”的想法；以及支撑微调的政治价值观。本文的最后部分以约翰·麦克马洪（John McMahon）的现有著作为基础，询问自由主义者的家长式教育是否应被理解为新自由主义的一种新的混合形式，或更确切地说，