Casting butts to protect the environment: On postliberal regulatory technologies|Votare con i mozziconi per proteggere l’ambiente: Tecnologie della regolazione postliberale

Abstract. Some postliberal non-coercive regulation techniques, like nudging and boosting, are not only more flexible and versatile than law but also better suited to cope with real agents’ limited and defective rationality. Those who conceive them take their cues from behavioural sciences, which postulate the constitutive vulnerability of agents making their choices in an uncertain and risky environment. This paper inquires whether these techniques may help agents to overcome their vulnerabilities or rather work towards limiting their autonomy, thereby contributing to the rise of a new form of dispotism.