laissez-faire 自由放任；放任主义；不干涉主义

〈法〉一种政治经济学理论。该词可能源于17世纪后期，法国财政部长科尔贝〔Colbert〕询问一位企业家：政府可以为企业做什么，企业家回答：Laissez nous faire(不要干涉我们；让我们自己处理)。这个词即转化成为政府在经济事务上不干预，在相关法律中不加以限制的代名词。经济思想家，如英国的李嘉图〔Ricardo〕、穆勒父子〔Mills〕，法国的扎伊尔〔Say〕、巴师夏〔Bastiat〕，政治思想家，如边沁、德·托克维尔〔de Tocqueville〕、塔尔德〔Tarde〕和斯宾塞，都以不同的侧重接受和传播自由放任理论。这一理论的过分运用，导致了大规模无限制的竞争，19世纪中期，社会主义者开始反对这一理论，强调保护雇员和消费者的利益，强调国家控制和调节。作为法律用语，该词强调与法律限制相对的契约自由，使用和处分财产的自由。

Laissez-faire is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from or almost free from any form of economic interventionism such as regulation and subsidies. As a system of thought, laissez-faire rests on the axioms that the individual is the basic unit in society and has a natural right to freedom; that the physical order of nature is a harmonious and self-regulating system; and that corporations are creatures of the state and therefore the citizens must watch them closely due to their propensity to disrupt the Smithian spontaneous order. These axioms constitute the basic elements of laissez-faire thought. Another basic principle holds that markets should be competitive, a rule that the early advocates of laissez-faire always emphasized. With the aims of maximizing freedom and of allowing markets to self-regulate, early advocates of laissez-faire proposed a impôt unique, a tax on land rent (similar to Georgism) to replace all taxes that they saw as damaging welfare by penalizing production. 以下为具体例句：

例句1

Laissez-faire is an economic theory from the 18th century that opposed any government intervention in business affairs. The driving principle behind laissez-faire, a French term that translates to “leave alone” (literally, “let you do”), is that the less the government is involved in the economy, the better off business will be, and by extension, society as a whole. Laissez-faire economics is a key part of free-market capitalism.

自由放任是18世纪的一种经济理论，反对政府对商业事务的任何干预。作为一个法语术语（可译为“别管”，字面意思为“让你做”），自由放任背后的驱动原则是，政府越少参与经济，企业就会越好，进而整个社会也会越好。自由放任经济学是自由市场资本主义的一个关键部分。

例句2

The underlying beliefs that make up the fundamentals of laissez-faire economics include the idea that economic competition constitutes a “natural order” that rules the world. Because this natural self-regulation is the best type of regulation, laissez-faire economists argue that there is no need for business and industrial affairs to be complicated by government intervention.

构成自由放任经济学基础的基本信念包括，经济竞争构成了统治世界的“自然秩序”。因为这种自然的自我监管是最好的监管类型，自由放任的经济学家认为，商业和工业事务没有必要因政府干预而变得复杂。

例句3

As a result, they oppose any sort of federal involvement in the economy, which includes any type of legislation or oversight; they are against minimum wages, duties, trade restrictions, and corporate taxes. In fact, laissez-faire economists see such taxes as a penalty for production.

因此，他们反对任何形式的联邦经济干预，包括任何类型的立法或监督；他们反对最低工资、关税、贸易限制和公司税。事实上，自由放任的经济学家认为这种税收是对生产的惩罚。

例句4

One of the chief criticisms of laissez-faire is that capitalism as a system has moral ambiguities built into it: It does not inherently protect the weakest in society. While laissez-faire advocates argue that if individuals serve their own interests first, societal benefits will follow.

对自由放任主义的主要批评之一是，资本主义作为一种制度，其内在包含着道德上的模糊性：它并没有从本质上保护社会中最弱势的群体。而自由放任主义者认为，如果个人首先为自己的利益服务，社会利益就会随之而来。