This is a purely hypothetical assumption, much like the theory of hypothetical consent as a justification for political authority. Needless to say, I’m not impressed with it.
It is true that in theory there is a coordination problem with sanctions because they are like taxes: the cost to a country of being sanctioned is second order in the magnitude of the sanctions being imposed. This means even an individual who cares about punishing Japan for its war in China can only impose second-order costs on Japan by his participation at the expense of a first-order cost to himself.
The problem is that there isn’t sufficient reason to believe in the real world that governments impose sanctions to solve coordination problems. Everyone can understand that Russian sanctions on foreign countries, such as blocking websites not cooperating with the Russian government or halting trade of various goods with European countries, are actually against the interests of individuals living in Russia. All I’m saying is that the same is true of most sanctions imposed by the United States government or any other government.
This is a purely hypothetical assumption, much like the theory of hypothetical consent as a justification for political authority. Needless to say, I’m not impressed with it.
It is true that in theory there is a coordination problem with sanctions because they are like taxes: the cost to a country of being sanctioned is second order in the magnitude of the sanctions being imposed. This means even an individual who cares about punishing Japan for its war in China can only impose second-order costs on Japan by his participation at the expense of a first-order cost to himself.
The problem is that there isn’t sufficient reason to believe in the real world that governments impose sanctions to solve coordination problems. Everyone can understand that Russian sanctions on foreign countries, such as blocking websites not cooperating with the Russian government or halting trade of various goods with European countries, are actually against the interests of individuals living in Russia. All I’m saying is that the same is true of most sanctions imposed by the United States government or any other government.