The Last Gasp of Neoliberalism
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Original Institutional Economics and Political Anthropology
Original Institutional Economics and Political Anthropology: Reflections on the nature of coercive power and vested interests in the works of Thorstein Veblen and Pierre Clastres Coauthored by: Manuel Ramon de Souza Luz; Faculty of Economics; Federal University ABC; São Paulo, Brazil [email protected] John Hall, Department of Economics, Portland State University; Oregon, USA [email protected] Abstract: Our inquiry advances a comparison of the anthropological content of Thorstein Veblen’s evolutionary perspective with the foundations of the political anthropology drawn from selected works of Pierre Clastres. We seek to establish that what can be referred to as a clastrean reference can simultaneously offer new perspectives on institutionalism, while maintaining a radical and emancipatory understanding of Veblen’s writings. In this sense, we seek to reconsider and reevaluate the role of economic surplus drawn from Veblen’s anthropology, while also offering a general and critical perspective for understanding the emergence of coercive power within societies. (94 words) JEL Classification Codes B15, B25, B41 Key Words: Coercive Power, Original Institutional Economics, Pierre Clastres, Political Anthropology, Thorstein Veblen (Front matter: 169 words) This inquiry considers contributions of Thorstein Veblen by juxtaposing them to selected contributions of Pierre Clastres, a scholar heralded as a founder of French political anthropology. Differing from Veblen, with his backgrounds in Economics and Philosophy, Clastres’ generated an anthropology founded on fieldwork investigations. These investigations abetted his constructing a theoretical synthesis that considers the nature of power and, relatedly, countervailing institutions within selected indigenous societies found across the South American continent. His body of research stresses that the classless and egalitarian character of indigenous societies was not an outcome of the comparatively modest levels of technology and the lack of accumulated surpluses. -
Working Paper No. 39, Neoliberalism As a Variant of Capitalism
Portland State University PDXScholar Working Papers in Economics Economics 12-12-2019 Working Paper No. 39, Neoliberalism as a Variant of Capitalism Justin Pilarski Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/econ_workingpapers Part of the Economic History Commons, and the Economic Theory Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Citation Details Pilarski, Justin "Neoliberalism as a Variant of Capitalism, Working Paper No. 39", Portland State University Economics Working Papers. 39. (12 December 2019) i + 14 pages. This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Working Papers in Economics by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Neoliberalism as a Variant of Capitalism Working Paper No. 39 Authored by: Justin Pilarski A Contribution to the Working Papers of the Department of Economics, Portland State University Submitted for: EC445 “Comparative Economic Systems” 12 December 2019; i + 14 pages Prepared for Professor John Hall Abstract: Economic systems evolve over time in adapting to the needs and deficiency of the system. This inquiry seeks to establish Neoliberalism as—in the language of Barry Clark—a variant of capitalism that evolved out of retaliation of the regulated variant of capitalism. We utilize Barry Clark’s work on the evolution of economic systems in establishing the pattern of adaptation in American capitalism. Then we establish and analyze the neoliberal variant of capitalism in how this evolution retaliated against the existing system rather than adapting the preceding variant. -
Disruptor in Chief
the author(s) 2019 ISSN 1473-2866 (Online) ISSN 2052-1499 (Print) www.ephemerajournal.org volume 19(3): 663-670 Disruptor in chief Thomas Lopdrup-Hjorth review of Woodward, B. (2018) Fear – Trump in the White House. London: Simon & Schuster (HB, pp xxii + 420, £12,29, ISBN: 978-1-4711-8129-0) Bob Woodward’s book Fear: Trump in the White House was one of the most awaited, hyped, and talked about books of 2018 – and understandably so. Woodward has authored or coauthored 18 books, several of which have portrayed American presidents and topped the national bestseller-lists. His previous work, not least with Carl Bernstein at the Washington Post, has earned him fame and acclaim, and has, among other things, been instrumental in starting a process that brought a former president down (e.g. Bernstein and Woodward, 1974). In 1973, the Washington Post received a Pulitzer Price for public service for the reporting Woodward and Bernstein did on the Watergate break-in. Here, they revealed how the scandal had ties all the way to the White House, implicating President Nixon who had to resign, as the nefarious details were uncovered. Woodward’s role in shaping America’s recent political history explains the hype and anticipation leading up to the publication of his latest book on Trump in the White House. And it perhaps also explains some of the mild disappointment generated in reading the book – at least for readers who had expected (or hoped for) consequences that merely gestured in the direction of those generated by the disclosure of the Watergate-scandal. -
Evolutionary Economics Geoffrey M
Course Description Evolutionary Economics Geoffrey M. Hodgson www.geoffrey-hodgson.info [email protected] YSI Workshop Antalya @ Turkish Economic Association Conference Antalya, Turkey 16-17 October 2014 16 October from 9am to 12.30pm 9am Lecture 1: “The terrain of evolutionary economics” This lecture will explore the extent of modern “evolutionary” economics, the key works and authors that have been most inspirational for it, its wide influence in theory and policy, and its links with mainstream economics and other disciplines. 11am Lecture 2: “Communality and differences within evolutionary economics” This lecture will consider the main shared assumptions and concerns within “evolutionary economics” and also show how some internal disputes are founded on different assumptions concerning the objects of study. 17 October from 9am to 12.30pm 9am Lecture 3: “Generalizing Darwinism” This lecture will consider the search for general principles that govern socio-economic evolution. The idea of using generalised Darwinian principles is addressed, along with some objections to this approach. 11am Lecture 4: “The evolution of moral sentiments” This lecture will address another new strain of thinking within “evolutionary economics” that explores the implications of (broadly Darwinian) evolutionary theory in other disciplines (such as anthropology and psychology) for our understanding of such issues as human motivation and economic organization. 1 Reading COMPULSORY READING Bowles, Samuel and Gintis, Herbert (2005) ‘Can Self-Interest Explain Cooperation?’ Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, 2(1), October, pp. 21-41. Aldrich, Howard E., Geoffrey M. Hodgson, David L. Hull, Thorbjørn Knudsen, Joel Mokyr and Viktor J. Vanberg (2008) ‘In Defence of Generalized Darwinism’, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 18(5), October, pp. -
Ontological Issues in Evolutionary Economics: the Debate Between Generalized Darwinism and the Continuity Hypothesis
# 0805 Ontological issues in evolutionary economics: The debate between Generalized Darwinism and the Continuity Hypothesis by Jack Vromen The Papers on Economics and Evolution are edited by the Evolutionary Economics Group, MPI Jena. For editorial correspondence, please contact: [email protected] Max Planck Institute of Economics ISSN 1430-4716 Evolutionary Economics Group Kahlaische Str. 10 © by the author 07745 Jena, Germany Fax: ++49-3641-686868 #0805 Ontological issues in evolutionary economics: The debate between Generalized Darwinism and the Continuity Hypothesis Jack Vromen EIPE Erasmus University Rotterdam (second draft, June 2008)1 1 I want to thank Ulrich Witt for helpful comments on an earlier draft. 1 #0805 Introduction Recently evolutionary economists started to pay attention to ontological issues in their own subfield. Two projects dominate the discussions: Generalized Darwinism (henceforth: GD), promoted by Geoff Hodgson and Thorbjørn Knudsen, and the Continuity Hypothesis (henceforth: CH), put forward by Ulrich Witt. As a first and crude approximation (to be refined below), GD entails the view that abstract and general Darwinian principles suit the study of biological evolution and of economic evolution equally well. The CH entails the view that ongoing economic evolution proceeds on the basis of, and is still influenced by the outcomes of preceding processes of biological evolution. At present, GD and CH are vying for hegemony in the community of evolutionary economists. GD and the CH sometimes are pitted against each other as if they were mutually excluding rivals. This paper investigates to what extent (and if so, in what sense) GD and the CH are rivals. As we shall see, part of the debate between proponents of GD and of the CH is about the very notion of ontology itself. -
Evolutionary Economics - Geoffrey M
FUNDAMENTAL ECONOMICS - Evolutionary Economics - Geoffrey M. Hodgson EVOLUTIONARY ECONOMICS Geoffrey M. Hodgson University of Hertfordshire Business School, Hatfield, Hertfordshire Al10 0ab, UK Keywords: Evolution, Economics, Novelty, Innovation, Darwinism, Variation, Selection, Replication, Game Theory. Contents 1. Introduction 2. The Emergence of Evolutionary Economics 3. First Principles and Shared Concerns 4. Different Evolutionary Approaches 5. The Search for General Evolutionary Principles 6. Evolutionary and Mainstream Economics Compared 7. Evolutionary Economics and Evolutionary Game Theory 8. Conclusion: Prospects for Evolutionary Economics Acknowledgements Glossary Bibliography References Biographical Sketch Summary Historically, a number of approaches in economics, including works by Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Carl Menger, Alfred Marshall, Thorstein Veblen, Joseph Schumpeter, and Friedrich Hayek, have been described as ‘evolutionary’. This is legitimate, because ‘evolutionary’ is a very broad word, loosely denoting concern with transformation, innovation and development. But today the term ‘evolutionary economics’ is more typically associated with a new wave of theorizing signaled by the seminal work of Richard Nelson and Sidney Winter in their Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change (1982). Although there is not yet any consensus on core principles, this wave of evolutionary thinking has given rise to a number of policy developments and has proved to be influentialUNESCO in a number of sub-disciplines, – inEOLSS business schools and in institutions concerned with science and innovation policy. Citation and other bibliometric studies show that despite its internal diversity, modern evolutionary economics has created a global network of identifiable interacting researchers. As well as discussing these background issues,SAMPLE this essay turns to theore CHAPTERStical principles and outlines some of the shared common assumptions of this broad approach. -
Politics: Pre-University Reading
Year 13 Politics Students – reading, listening and viewing to keep you entertained and informed Please see the last page for details of an exciting competition! Books: Yuval Harari - 21 Lessons for the 21st Century – from the author of the superb history bestseller, “Sapiens”. This book looks at the present and the future. “There is surely no one alive who is better at explaining our world than Yuval Noah Harari - he is the lecturer we all wish we’d had at university. Reading this book, I must have interrupted my partner a hundred times to pass on fascinating things I’d just read.” Adam Kaye Owen Jones – “The Establishment” – “Behind our democracy lurks a powerful but unaccountable network of people who wield massive power and reap huge profits in the process.” Hardly impartial, but an interesting viewpoint. Tim Marshall – “Prisoners of Geography - Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics” - "A fresh and original insight into the geopolitics behind today's foreign policy challenges" - Andrew Neil Steve Richards - The Prime Ministers – A landmark history of the men and women who have defined the UK's role in the modern world - and what makes them special - by a seasoned political journalist. Michael Lewis – “The Fifth Risk” – Michael Lewis, author of the Big Short and Moneyball, looks at events in the US after the election of Donald Trump. “Michael Lewis reveals the combustible cocktail of wilful ignorance and venality that is fuelling the destruction of a country's fabric.” Peter Frankopan – “The New Silk Roads” – a look at the interconnected world and the recent eastwards shift in power. -
Thorstein Veblen and American Social Criticism Joseph Heath Department of Philosophy University of Toronto Thorstein Veblen Is P
Thorstein Veblen and American Social Criticism Joseph Heath Department of Philosophy University of Toronto Thorstein Veblen is perhaps best thought of as America’s answer to Karl Marx. This is sometimes obscured by the rather unfortunate title of his most important work, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), which misleading, insofar as it suggests that the book is just a theory of the “leisure class.” What the book provides is in fact a perfectly general theory of class, not to mention property, economic development, and social evolution. It is, in other words, a system of theory that rivals Marx’s historical materialism with respect to scope, generality and explanatory power. Furthermore, it is a system of theory whose central predictions, with respect to the development of capitalism and the possibilities for emancipatory social change, have proven to be essentially correct. When stacked up against Marx’s prognostications, this success clearly provides the basis for what might best be described as an invidious comparison. For example, it is Veblen who, at the close of the 19th century, observed that “The exigencies of the modern industrial system frequently place individuals and households in juxtaposition between whom there is little contact in any other sense than that of juxtaposition. One's neighbors, mechanically speaking, often are socially not one's neighbors, or even acquaintances; and still their transient good opinion has a high degree of utility... It is evident, therefore, that the present trend of the development is in the direction of heightening the utility of conspicuous consumption as compared with leisure” (1899, ch. -
Fusing Myrdalian and Kaldorian Growth and Development Dynamics
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ISSUES Vol. XLII No. 2 June 2008 Principle of Circular and Cumulative Causation: Fusing Myrdalian and Kaldorian Growth and Development Dynamics Phillip Anthony O’Hara Abstract: This paper seeks to promote the development of the principle of circular and cumulative causation (CCC) through integrating social and economic dimensions as applied to historical problems. It starts by examining the similarities and differences between Myrdalian and Kaldorian circular and cumulative causation. It shows that the similarities help link the approaches, while the differences enable complementary specializations. There are core elements in both traditions plus specializations that are complementary. A degree of convergence exists between these traditions of institutional and post Keynesian schools, enhancing the analytical spread of vision of contemporary political economy. Keywords: circular and cumulative causation, Gunnar Myrdal, Nicholas Kaldor, institutional and post Keynesian political economy JEL Classification Codes: B52, E12, 042, P16, Z1 Circular and cumulative causation (CCC) has been a critical principle of political economy for over a hundred years. While the roots of the concept go back further (see Humphrey 1990; O’Hara 2000), Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929) utilized the concept in his examination of the evolution of institutions. Gunnar Myrdal (1898-1987) scrutinized the conditions of African Americans and Asian underdevelopment through the lens of CCC; influenced as he was by Knut Wicksell (1851-1926) (Myrdal 1939). Nicholas Kaldor (1908-1986) applied CCC to the role of manufacturing in capitalist growth; influenced by Adam Smith (1723-1790) and Allyn Young (1876- 1929). Numerous other scholars have utilized the notion of CCC, often in different The author is a Professor of Global Political Economy & Governance and Director of the Global Political Economy Research Unit (GPERU) in the Department of Economics, Curtin University, Perth, Australia. -
Civil Discourse. This Podcast Will Use Government Documents To
Welcome to Civil Discourse. This podcast will use government documents to illuminate the workings of the American Government and offer contexts around the effects of government agencies in your everyday life. Now your hosts, Nia Rodgers, Public Affairs Librarian and Dr. John Aughenbaugh, Political Science Professor. N. Rodgers: Hey, Aughie. J. Aughenbaugh: Hey, Nia. How are you? N. Rodgers: I'm good. How are you? J. Aughenbaugh: Well, I've just consumed my second mug of coffee for the day. So everything about my life is peachy. N. Rodgers: I like how you say for the day when we know there's another 30 or 40 mugs of coffee coming. Most people are like, "I've had my last coffee for the day." You're like, "I'm just getting started." So I have a question for you that relates to our summer of SCOTUSness, and that is, when I'm President of the United States, do I have to show anybody my taxes? J. Aughenbaugh: Well, that depends. N. Rodgers: Of course, it does. J. Aughenbaugh: So listeners, what Nia is making reference to is two Supreme Court rulings that were handed down early in the month of July, as the Supreme Court term extended into July for the first time in a number of years. Those two cases were Trump versus Vance, who is the Attorney General for New York County in the State of New York, and Trump versus Mazars, which is consolidated with Trump versus Deutsche Bank. I just like saying Deutsche. N. Rodgers: Oh yeah, who doesn't? J. -
Instinct and Habit Before Reason: Comparing the Views of John Dewey, Friedrich Hayek and Thorstein Veblen
Instinct and Habit before Reason: Comparing the Views of John Dewey, Friedrich Hayek and Thorstein Veblen Geoffrey M. Hodgson 2 July 2005 Published in Advances in Austrian Economics The Business School, University of Hertfordshire, De Havilland Campus, Hatfield, Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, UK http://www.herts.ac.uk/business http://www.geoffrey-hodgson.ws Address for correspondence: Malting House, 1 Burton End, West Wickham, Cambridgeshire CB1 6SD, UK [email protected] KEY WORDS: Darwinism, reason, intentionality, habit, instinct, Veblen, Dewey, Hayek ABSTRACT This article compares the views of Veblen, Dewey and Hayek on the roles and relations between instinct, habit and reason. From a Darwinian perspective, it is shown that Veblen had a more consistent and developed position on this issue than others. While Dewey embraced instinct and especially habit in his early works, these concepts gradually disappeared from view. Despite their shared opposition to the rising behaviorist psychology, the works of both Dewey and Hayek bear the marks of its hegemony. Consequently, at least in the context addressed here, the works of Veblen deserve reconsideration. Instinct and Habit before Reason: Comparing the Views of John Dewey, Friedrich Hayek and Thorstein Veblen Geoffrey M. Hodgson „But in fact men are good and virtuous because of three things. These are nature, habit or training, reason.‟ Aristotle, The Politics (1962, p. 284) Among species on Earth, humans have the most developed capacity for reason, deliberation and conscious prefiguration.1 However, humans have evolved from other species. Their unique attributes have emerged by the gradual accumulation of adaptations. Our capacity for reason did not appear as a sudden and miraculous event. -
Hodgson Pour
Revue de la régulation Capitalisme, Institutions, Pouvoirs , n°2, 2008 Fostering Variety in Economics. Entretien avec Geoffrey Hodgson Agnès Labrousse, Julien Vercueil RR. : Although they are not new in economics, evolutionary and institutional approaches have attracted a growing interest since the 1980s. How do you explain that? Geoffrey Hodgson : When I started working on institutional and evolutionary ideas in the early 1980s, I felt almost a lone voice among economists. Now the situation is very different. There are several reasons for the rise in interest in institutional and evolutionary ideas. Until the 1970s, much of the challenge to mainstream ideas was in macroeconomics, reflecting the influence of Keynesian and Marxian approaches. With some exceptions, such as the work of Herbert Simon, orthodox micro-theory faced less opposition. To a significant degree, the rise of institutional, evolutionary and behavioural approaches reflects the growing development of alternative theories in the microeconomic arena. These became significant in the 1980s, notably with the work of Richard Nelson, Sidney Winter and Oliver Williamson. By the 1990s, some of these critical movements had had a major impact on mainstream approaches, and others became more prominent among heterodox economists. The new institutionalists Ronald Coase and Douglass North were awarded Nobel Prizes in 1991 and 1993. The various forms of institutional and evolutionary thought tackle important questions concerning institutions and economic development that were relatively neglected from the 1950s to the 1970s. RR. : Could you present the core propositions of your institutional and evolutionary economics? GH. : Both ‘institutional economics’ and ‘evolutionary economics’ are very broad churches. There are as many important differences within both the original and new institutional economics as there are between them.