What Is Prosperity, and How Can Law Foster It? From Promises of Wealth to the Legal Conditions for a Better Life

Abstract

The paper examines the concept of prosperity and the role of law in fostering it. Starting from ordinary understandings, it shows that prospering is not merely a matter of becoming wealthier, but of improving one's life according to a broader assessment that considers not only present circumstances but also expectations for the future. It then discusses how the concept has been articulated and disseminated through three languages: political economy, theology, and self-help. Each attributes success and failure to different factors: institutions, faith, and individual disposition, respectively. When treated as sufficient explanations, the latter two hold individuals responsible for outcomes that do not depend on them alone. Rather than fostering prosperity, they obscure the concrete conditions that make it possible. Law enters the picture because it is a particularly important means of shaping those conditions. Legal rules can expand individuals' opportunities to pursue their own projects without determining their content or outcomes. Against this background, the paper presents six ways in which law can foster prosperity: by improving the conditions under which individuals make decisions, adopting legal regimes conducive to entrepreneurship, expanding insurance coverage, maximizing discretionary time, combating predatory indebtedness, and allowing debt forgiveness under carefully defined conditions.