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Benquo's avatar

Plato explicitly endorses a regime with inadequate norm enforcement in Republic. Possibly Robin is thinking more of romantics than idealists, though, as at least the exemplary idealists tend to acknowledge this problem.

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Lord's avatar

I think most are pragmatists, they know enforcement is important and valuable, but also know it is costly and hard, and it is a question of balancing believed desired norms against enforcement costs to get the most bang for the buck. They believe we are all better off if we follow them though some can do better violating them, but that we would all be worse off if no one does, and the costs of extreme enforcement are such that it is the same as them not existing at all. Instead of fixed policy, we have to adapt, strengthening enforcement when cheating costs becomes too great and relaxing it when enforcement costs become too great. Criminals adapt and so must we. The imperfect is not the enemy of the perfect, it is the reality.

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