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Economics Faculty Research and Publications Economics, Department of

1-1-1998 Social Economics: Organizations John B. Davis Marquette University, [email protected]

Published version. "Social Economics: Organizations," in Encyclopedia of Political Economy. Eds. Phillip Anthony O'Hara. London: Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 1998: 1038-1040. Publisher Link. © 1998 Taylor & Francis (Routledge). Used with permission. social economics: organizations

Selected references ment, social security, credit policy, the Federal Reserve and postwar reconstruction). ThoUgh Apter, David E. (1993) "Social Democracy," in early contributors were influenced by neoclas_ William Outhwaite and Tom Bottomore sical economists, solidarism, a theoretical (eds), Blackwell Dictionary of Twentieth­ orientation critical of neoclassical economics Century Social Thought, Oxford: Blackwell. with origins in the work of Heinrich Pesch and Bernstein, Eduard (1898) Evolutionary Social­ Goetz Briefs in interwar Germany, became ism, New York: Schocken, 1961. increasing influential. Members of the ASE Milner, Henry (1990) Sweden: Social Democ­ tended to reject liberalism and laissez-faire, and racy in Practice, Oxford: Oxford University argued for a social market economy and an Press. economic process embedded in the larger living Nettl, IP. (1973) "Social Democracy in Ger­ context of society. many and Revisionism," in Dictionary of the In 1970 the members of the Association History of Ideas, vo l. 4, Studies of Selected elected to give up their strict identification with Pivotal Ideas, ed. Philip P. Wiener, New York: Catholic social thought, and gave the organiza­ Charles Scribner's Sons. tion its current name to refle~t the increasingly Pierson, Christopher (1991) Beyond the Welfare pluralistic character of its membership. The State: The New Political Economy of Welfare, organization grew to include institutionalists, Cambridge: Polity Press. Marxists and secular humanists, who favored Pimlott, B. (ed.) (1984) Fabian Essays in an emphasis on social values in economics and Socialist Thought, London: Heinemann. who developed new arguments regarding the socially-embedded and value-laden character PHILLIP ANTHONY O'HARA of the economy and economics. In the Asso­ ciation's new constitution, the organization's objectives are to "foster research and publica­ social economics: tion centered on the reciprocal relationship organizations between economic science and broader ques­ tions of human dignity, ethical values, and In the contemporary scene, social economics social philosophy ... to consider the personal tends to center around three main organiza­ and social dimensions of economic proble­ tions: the Association for Social Economics ms . .. and to assist in the formulation of (AS E), the International Center for Social economic policies consistent with a concern Economics (ICSE), and the Society for the for ethical values a ... pluralistic community Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE). and the demands of personal dignity." Each of these is discussed below. The quarter-century of publication in the Review of Social Economy and the Forum for Association for Social Economics Social Economics since 1970 has continued an emphasis on social values and pluralism. More The Association for Social Economics was recent contributors include post-Keynesians, founded in 1941 as the Catholic Economics feminists, environmentalists, cooperativists, Association, with a membership drawn largely methodologists and behaviorialists. Since 1995 from US Catholic colleges and universities. Its the Review has been published quarterly by journal, the Review of Social Economy, was first Routledge in London, which also sponsors the published in 1942. Early papers focused on the "New Developments in Social Economics" application of Catholic social doctrine to book series. economics, the role of social values in the economy and in economics, social justice and International Center for Social Economics contemporary issues of socioeconomic organi­ zation (such as labor relations, unions, employ- The ICSE was founded in 1986, and supports

1038 social economics: organizations research exammmg the relationship between an international forum for the dissemination of income distribution and economic growth, as the results of scholarly work in this field. well as the manner in which they influence and are influenced by cultural factors and social Society for the Advancement of Socio­ institutions. The Center was founded by Y.S. Economics Brenner (Utrecht University), H. Deleeck (University of Antwerp/UFSIA), A. Hirsch SASE (founded in \989) is an international, (Brooklyn College/CUNY), H. Kaelble (Free interdisciplinary organization with members in University of Berlin), WI Samuels (Michigan over 50 countries. The academic disciplines State University), P. Scholliers (Free University represented in SASE include economics, so­ of Brussels), I. Stone (Baruch College/CUNY), ciology, political science, management, psy­ T. van Tijn (Utrecht University) and the late I chology, law, history and philosophy. The Tinbergen. membership of SASE also includes business The ICSE cooperates with Brooklyn Col­ people and policy makers in government and lege/CUNY, Baruch College/CUNY, The Cen­ international organizations. SASE's honorary ter for Social Policy/University of Antwerp/ fellows include Pierre Bourdieu, Mary Dou­ UFSIA and the Center for Contemporary glas, Amitai Etzioni, John Kenneth Galbraith, Social History/Free University of Brussels. John Gardner, Albert O. Hirschman, Rosabeth The Center has hosted a number of confer­ Moss Kanter, Amartya Sen, Herbert Simon ences, among them several together with the and Neil Smelser. Belgian-Dutch Association of Post-Keynesian The purpose of SASE is threefold: (I) to Studies, and the founding meeting of the advance an encompassing understanding of International Confederation for the Reform economic behavior across a broad range of of Economics (ICARE). academic disciplines; (2) to support intellectual The ICSE coordinates research to structure exploration and policy implications of eco­ the efforts of participating scholars from the nomic behavior within the context of psycho­ social and cultural sciences. Issues focused logical, societal, institutional, historical, upon include empirical analyses of income philosophical and ethical factors; and (3) to distribution, income distribution theories, lin­ balance inductive and deductive approaches to kages between income and wealth distribution, the study of economic behavior at both micro empirical testing of distribution theories, the and macro levels of analysis. significance of income distribution to social Socioeconomics is an emerging meta-disci­ policy, economic growth and the role of pline. Socioeconomics begins with the assump­ institutions, technological choice in relation to tion that economics is not a self-contained income distribution, the international distribu­ system, but is embedded in society, polity and tion of income, and ethical aspects of income culture. Socioeconomics regards competition distribution. The results of some of these as a subsystem encapsulated within a societal studies have been published in the Journal of context that contains values, power relations, Income Distribution, which was founded for and social networks. The societal context both this purpose in 1990. The editors at time of enables and constrains competition. Socio­ writing are Y.S. Brenner, M. Bronfenbrenner , economics further assumes that individual and WI Samuels. The publisher is JAI Press/ choices are shaped by values, emotions, social UK, and the managing editor is IT.IM. van bonds and moral judgments rather than by der Linden. narrow self-interest. There is no a priori The Journal of Income Distribution aims to assumption that people act rationally or that facilitate communication and discussion of they only pursue self-interest or pleasure. research in the field of social economics and Methodologically, socioeconomics regards particularly in the sphere of the distribution of inductive studies as co-equal in standing with income and wealth. Its intention is to provide deductive ones. Socioeconomics is both a

1039 social economics: history and nature positive and a normative science. That is, it help to form an Enlightenment-based concep_ openly recognizes its policy relevance and seeks tion of an economy that is believed to be to be self-aware of its normative implications efficient and equitable if property claims to rather than maintain the mantle of an exclu­ land and resources are equitable to begin with. sively positive science. Socioeconomics does Conventional economists will admit that this not entail a commitment to anyone ideological model may not always work well in the real position, but is open to a range of positions world; there may be serious obstacles such as that share a view of treating economic behavior "market failures" (externalities and public as involving the whole person and all facets of goods) and imperfections due to interferences society. from monopolists and governments. But, with all its limitations, they accept it as a benchmark for public policy. The ideal is delineated as one See also: leading to Paretian optimality, a state of community; ethics and morality; humanistic maximum economic utility or welfare. economics; justice; social economics: history Social economists' complaint against this and nature; social economics: major contem­ conventional viewpoint is not so much that the porary themes; value judgments and world assumptions are false; most social economists views would admit that there are natural physical laws applicable to social phenomena. What is JOHN B. DAVIS wrong with it is that it is narrow, incomplete and too individualistic. Completely unaccep­ table is the assumption that the final cause or social economics: history and end of the economy is the maximization of utility: that is, the purpose of an economy is to nature achieve the greatest amount of material wel­ fare. Most social economists assume a different Economics is a child of the Enlightenment. end, as did the ancient Greeks who were the Social economics is an alternative to it, and first to study the economy seriously. older. Mainstream economics is a mixture of philosophical assumptions and scientific de­ vices originating out of the social philosophy of Provisioning of the community seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France The very terms "economy" and "economics" and Britain. For example, in the elementary as used by Xenophon and Aristotle in the principles courses teachers use the analytic second century BC indicate a substantive geometry of Descartes to explain supply and difference in social philosophy. The word demand; the intermediate and higher levels use "economics" was derived from two Greek the calculus of Leibniz and Newton. Its philo­ words, oikos (household) and nemein (to rule). sophical assumptions imply that the whole The study of the economy to the Greeks was economy works effectively and harmoniously one of ruling or managing a household writ because it is an equilibrating stationary flow large, a view radically different from the mechanism governed by natural physical laws prevailing one of effective markets operating analogous to Newton's solar system. Assumed by impersonal forces of supply and demand. To also is the natural social law mentioned by Aristotle, the purpose of an economy is to Adam Smith that individuals making economic control the provisioning of the community. As decisions are motivated by self-love, and that summarized by Karl Polanyi, Aristotle's as­ this self-interested behavior is held in check by sumptions pre-ordering the direction of eco­ another natural phenomenon, effective compe­ nomic activity were COMMUNITY ("man's tition. economy is, as a rule, submerged in his social These assumptions and heuristic devices relations"), self-sufficiency (first priority is the

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