%0 Journal Article
%T Adam Smith: So what if the sovereign shares in ignorance?
%A Lev Marder
%J Journal of International Political Theory
%@ 1755-1722
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1755088217705893
%X Unfortunately, Adam Smith¡¯s undeserved legacy as a proponent of laissez-faire and liberal institutions at the international scope inhibits profiting from his refined analysis of international affairs. I argue that the Wealth of Nations¡¯ chapter on colonies contains Smith¡¯s discussion of the sovereign¡¯s adaptation to ignorance in global politics. I examine the sense in which the sovereign is ignorant according to Smith and how sovereigns adapt to ignorance with varying success. His comparative analysis suggests that reduction of one¡¯s share in ignorance is not always desirable, and a priori rejection of ignorance is impractical because it deprives of a potentially advantageous resource. A careful reading of his work enables learning from his approach to global politics, without filtering it through his ideas on the free market
%K Adam Smith
%K ignorance
%K information overload
%K institutions
%K sovereign
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1755088217705893