BharatNotes Laissez-faire
noun; also adjective (attributive, as in "a laissez-faire approach")Usage in a UPSC answer
India's post-1991 liberalisation did not amount to an unqualified embrace of laissez-faire; rather, the state retreated from production while reinventing itself as a regulator, recognising that unfettered markets, left wholly to themselves, tend to neglect equity, the environment and the interests of the unorganised poor.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
laissez-faire (adj), laissez-fairism (n), laissez-faireist (n)
Root
French laisser = to let (Latin laxāre = to loosen) + faire = to do (Latin facere); lit. 'let do'
Etymology
From French laissez faire ("let [them] do," literally "leave to do"), from laisser ("to let," from Latin laxāre, "to loosen") and faire ("to do," from Latin facere); associated with the 18th-century French Physiocrats.
Memory Hook
French "laissez faire" = "let (them) do" — picture a lazy ("laissez" sounds like 'lay-say', a lazy 'let it be' shrug) regulator who lays back and says "fair enough, do as you please" — the state keeps its hands off the market.
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