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Economics and Utopia ECONOMICS AND UTOPIA Why the learning economy is not the end of history Geoffrey M. Hodgson London and New York ECONOMICS AND UTOPIA For many, the collapse of the Eastern Bloc after 1989 signalled the obsolescence of all forms of utopian thinking. It was said that history had reached its end-state in the form of Western, individualistic capitalism. Economics and Utopia challenges this argument and opens up space for novel, pluralist and flexible discourses concerning possible futures. Both the past utopias of traditional socialism and market individualism are shown to be inadequate, and especially inappropriate for a complex economy driven by innovation and rapid human learning. The idea of the ‘end of history’ is challenged partly on the grounds that it ignores the immense and persistent variety of institutions and cultures within capitalism itself. In the final part of the book, possible yet hitherto unfamiliar futures beyond capitalism are explored, using a developed theoretical framework and modern techniques of scenario planning. More than a consideration of alternative economic systems, Economics and Utopia shows that visions of a possible future require a new and reconstructed economic theory that gives full consideration to the processes of learning and innovation, and to their cultural and institutional integument. Accordingly, in order to understand the processes of transformation in modern economies and to consider future possibilities, changes at the core of economic theory are necessary. Geoffrey M. Hodgson is a Reader in Economics in the Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge. He is the author of, among many other works, Economics and Evolution (1993), Economics and Institutions (1988) and The Democratic Economy (1984). A recent survey of opinion carried out by the Diamond business weekly in Japan ranked him as one of the twenty-three most important economists of all time. First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 1001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. © 1999 Geoffrey M. Hodgson The right of Geoffrey M. Hodgson to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Hodgson, Geoffrey Martin Economics and Utopia: why the learning economy is not the end of history / Geoffrey M. Hodgson. p. cm. – (Economics as social theory) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Liberalism. 2. Economics. 3. Utopian socialism. 4. Marxian economics. I. Title. II. Series. HB95.H63 1999 98–18791 330–dc21 CIP ISBN 0-415-07506-8 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-19685-X (pbk) ISBN 0-203-02571-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-17223-X (Glassbook Format) Anyone who fears that we face a future of ever more strident market individualism can take comfort from this eloquent counterblast. It is not just that Hodgson’s economic philosophy rests on broader, more congenial, more human values. He also offers hope that ever more knowledge-intensive economies will have to adapt to such broader values to survive. Professor Ronald Dore, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, UK Institutions, evolution – and now utopia. Geoff Hodgson’s confident and creative reworking of critical perspectives in economics continues. Economic theories that ignore alternative ways the world could be are not only morally empty but inefficient. Yet the necessity of variety requires not a static utopia but an adaptable ‘evotopia’. These are ideas for all social scientists, not just economists. Professor Ian Gough, Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, UK This book makes all of us think again about what should be (and regrettably are not) the main topics of economics. It shows how economics can still be useful to understand the possible directions that our society may take and it helps us in the choice of policies that may favour one of them. It is very well written and engages the reader in a challenging dialogue with the author and, at the same time, with the most important economists who have shaped the history of economic analysis. It deserves to be a great success and I am confident that it will be one. Professor Ugo Pagano, Department of Economics, University of Sienna, Italy This is a brilliant, very ambitious and sensible work. It is more a work of diagnosis and critique than of prescription and prognosis, but it does focus on key elements of any future economy: diversity, innovation, learning, the structure and culture of governance and the forms of participatory democracy, and so on. The work further enhances the reputation of Hodgson as the leading institutionalist theorist of the present day; more important, it should stimulate much further work by others. Professor Warren Samuels, Department of Economics, Michigan State University, USA This book is exceedingly pertinent to current economic discourse. It is a most creative and persuasive contribution, adding important and new insights both in particular and in general, and exhibiting a superior level of professional scholarship, awareness and capacity. Professor Marc Tool, California State University (Emeritus), Sacramento, USA CONTENTS List of illustrationsxiii Prefacexv 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Some remarks on utopia 4 The theme of this book 9 Utopian economics and the economics of nowhere10 Part I Visions and illusions 2 SOCIALISM AND THE LIMITS TO INNOVATION 15 The emergence and meaning of the term ‘socialism’ 17 The very late inception of socialist economic pluralism 24 The problem of socialism and diversity 28 The socialist calculation debate 33 A proposal for ‘democratic planning’ 42 Computers to the rescue? 52 Can socialism learn? 59 3 THE ABSOLUTISM OF MARKET INDIVIDUALISM 62 The limits to contracts and markets 65 The individual as being the best judge of her needs 69 Learning a challenge to market individualism 74 Market individualism and the iron cage of liberty79 The alleged ubiquity of the market84 Organisations and the conditions for innovation and learning 88 Market individualism and the intolerance of structural diversity 90 Evaluating different types of market institution92 ix CONTENTS Part II The blindness of existing theory 4 THE UNIVERSALITY OF MAINSTREAM ECONOMICS 101 The universalist claims of mainstream economics 103 Univeralism versus realism in Hayek’s economics 105 The hidden, ideological specifics 107 The limits of contractarian analysis 110 Actor and structure 113 5 KARL MARX AND THE TRIUMPH OF CAPITALISM 117 The hidden, ahistorical universals 122 The problem of necessary impurities 124 Actor and structure 130 6 INSTITUTIONALISM AND VARIETIES OF CAPITALISM 133 Veblen’s critique of Marx 133 Specificity and universality 140 Institutions as units of analysis 142 Variety and the impurity principle 146 Varieties of actually existing capitalism 148 The spectres of globalisation and convergence 152 Part III Back to the future 7 CONTRACT AND CAPITALISM 157 The definition of capitalism revisited161 The nature and importance of the employment relationship 164 The incompleteness of the employment contract170 Buying tuna and contesting exchange172 8 KNOWLEDGE AND EMPLOYMENT 179 The advance of complexity and knowledge 181 Where Marxism got it wrong 184 Complexity and computer technology 186 An alternative route: the omega scenario 188 The Arrow problem, the Knight paradox and the dissolution of control 189 Touching the intangible 193 Collective knowledge and corporate culture 197 Some implications for the employment contract 203 x CONTENTS 9THE END OF CAPITALISM? 205 Libertarianism versus responsibility 210 Beyond capitalism: the epsilon scenario 211 Beyond the epsilon scenario 216 Appendix: are worker knowco-ops efficient? 220 10 THE LEARNING FRONTIER 228 Knowledge and skills 228 11 SOME NORMATIVE AND POLICY ISSUES 240 The foundations of evotopia 241 Evotopia and the learning economy 246 Information overload: filtering and accreditation252 Complexity, information and ethics254 The future of contract and corporation 259 Final remarks 261 Notes 263 Bibliography 291 Index 327 xi PREFACE Lord, give me the strength to change what can be changed. Lord, give me the endurance to bear what cannot be changed. And Lord, grant me the wisdom to know the difference. Old Russian prayer On 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. A few weeks later, Germany was reunified. Eastern Europe turned away from its former ‘socialist’ ideology and returned to conventional capitalism.1 By the end of 1991, the Soviet Union had disintegrated and its newly independent republics had set course for the restoration of capitalism and the inauguration of democracy. Although they were originally conceived as models of human emancipation and scientific rationalism, only a few mourned the passing of these totalitarian, Eastern Bloc regimes, and the present author was not one of them. Much more worrying were the attempts to claim that the events of 1989–91 amounted to the unalloyed victory of some vaguely defined variety of liberal– democratic capitalism, thereby not only to proclaim ‘the death of socialism’ but also to draw a final line under all forms of ‘utopian’ discourse concerning a better and different future. It seemed to many that not only had Soviet ‘communism’ passed away, but so also had all alternative futures or utopias. Wolf Lepenies (1991, p. 8) was one of many who captured the mood when he wrote: ‘two years of unbelievable political change in Europe have been sufficient to proscribe the use of the word “utopia” ..
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