Moral Boundaries

Benjamin Enke

doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-091223-093730

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Moral Boundaries

2024-08-22

Benjamin Enke *

DOI：10.1146/annurev-economics-091223-093730

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Abstract

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This article reviews the growing economics literature that studies thepolitico-economic impacts of heterogeneity in moral boundaries acrossindividuals and cultures. The so-called universalism-versus-particularismcleavage has emerged as a main organizing principle behind various salientfeatures of contemporary political competition, including individual-leveland spatial variation in voting, the realignment of rich liberals and poorconservatives, the internal structure of ideology, and the moral content ofpolitical messaging. A recurring theme is that the explanatory power of uni-versalism for left-wing policy views and voting is considerably larger thanthat of traditional economic variables. Looking at the origins of hetero-geneity in universalism, an emerging consensus is that cross-group variationis partly economically functional and reflects that morality evolved to sup-port cooperation in economic production.This insight organizes much workon how kinship systems, market exposure, political institutions, and ecologyhave shaped universalism through their impacts on the relative benefits oflocalized and impersonal interactions.

Keywords:

moral boundaries

moral universalism

particularism