Major Themes in Industrialised Societies: The Moral Economy

 

We shall examine the ‘moral economy’ both as an inquiry and an object of study.

 

Basic Ideas

- Andrew Sayer and William James Booth

a) Individuals not only work and consume (as in traditional accounts of the political economy), but also judge and evaluate whether economic practices are fair and just. We are evaluative beings, considering what appropriate behaviour is and assessing what is acceptable behaviour in others.

b) A market economy is not only a matter of generating wealth or tackling economic inequalities, but also an issue of addressing what is a good society, and dealing with conflicting values and ethics.

c) A ‘moral economy’ does not condemn market relations, but argues that the market exchange may be more appropriate for some goods, but not for all. The music industry seemingly works well with people buying different types of musical CDs, however it does not accommodate well for minority interests, such as world or classical music. Also, we would object to commodifying medicine, so only those who had the means to purchase medicine, could be treated for their illness.

d) A ‘moral economy’ refers to both an inquiry (what ideas, concepts and theories are used to depict the economy) and an object of study (the real existence of morals, ethics, norms and values in the economy). The economy embodies norms, conventions, tacit understanding and constitutive rules regarding responsibilities, obligations, duties, rights and entitlements of individuals and institutions with respect to significant others (the family and friends), distant others, future generations, other species and the environment, and regarding the nature and qualities of social goods and services.

e) In making moral judgements, individuals define the limits of the market exchange; when is it appropriate to use money in exchange for goods and services. For example, a lecturer often refuses to accept a bribe to change a student grade. However, in many countries, ‘corruption’ occurs in many spheres (such as the public administration, policing and the legal system), though before they were protected from and blocked economic exchanges, but now they have become available for a price.

f) Often, people become cynical, frustrated and dispossessed when ‘sacred’ items become targets for profit-making and rent-seeking, and there is an outcry against such ‘corruption’. For example, some political appointments in a parliamentary system can depend on donating to a political party.

g) Markets possess their own values, and are not totally amoral; these values include liberty and private autonomy, personal choice and freedom to act, and formal equality and equal recognition.

h) However, markets can become too dominant, and colonise other social activities, such as education, medicine and the mass media. Often, these spheres become marketised and commercialised through trying to satisfy targets for efficiency, productivity and cost-saving.

 

 

The Social Spheres and Distributive Mechanisms

- Michael Walzer and Russell Keat

a) Social goods have specific meanings and properties that suggest there is a plurality of ways to distribute and allocate them; i.e., there are various distributive mechanisms based on money, fairness, need, merit and ability.

For example:

i) good medical care promotes health care and treats individuals with illness and diseases, irrespective of their social identity and income.

ii) good journalism reports in a fair, impartial and objective manner, informing citizens of issues of public interest.

iii) good higher education produces and communicates research and learning for its own sake, and the quality of work is judged using internal and shared evaluations.

b) There are several allocative mechanisms that distribute social goods in society based on need, fairness, equality, merit / desert and free exchange.

c) Our judgements of action ought to be based on what is the appropriate mechanism for a particular good. Good practices occur when judgements and actions correspond to appropriate organising principles and logics.

e.g., we praise student efforts because our evaluation of their work is based on their merit, rather than their need to get good marks. Lecturers act properly when they assess student work based on their merit, rather than on how well they have been paid by students.

c) A good society does not mean we have equal resources and outcomes, but rather have access to resources and achieve outcomes according to appropriate principles and mechanisms.

d) ‘Corruption’ occurs when there is a dominance of one principle over others in a social sphere;

e.g., corruption in the sphere of health care would mean that medicine is distributed because individuals possess money, political power and/or social connections to obtain health care – their need for treatment is not considered of primary importance.

e) There are many social spheres, such as friendship, sports, politics/government, police, sex, the law, religion, the family, neighbours and the community. Each sphere possesses its own distinctive distributive mechanism / organising principle / social logic that governs and regulates how social practices and relationships ought to be managed. But, in a modern capitalist society, these social spheres are vulnerable to threats of commodification and dominance from the market sphere, with money and the free exchange as the organising principle.

f) Organising principles and distributive mechanisms have an internal coherence that develops and enhances the social good. Nevertheless, the principles and mechanisms are reached through reasoned dialogue, historical consensus and debate within the community – i.e., they are socially constructed, but not arbitrary.

For instance, medicine is given to individuals who are in need, and are not given treatment because of their beauty and attractiveness; though doctors and nurses may be influenced by the latter, they are not the governing logic of medical care.