Inside Institutions of Progressive-Era Social Sciences: The Interdisciplinarity of Economics and Sociology

In the Progressive Era, sociology and institutional economics shared some important methodological principles and theoretical constructs. This study explores some of these similarities, focusing on the ideas and theories of Albion Small and Franklin Giddings, who were the most important sociologists in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. Since the literature on the history of the interdisciplinarity of economics and sociology is somewhat scarce, this study aims to contribute to this historiography by considering the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of early institutional economics — mainly from the standpoint of Veblenian institutional economics.     

论第三方物流的经济性

第三方物流是一种专业化的物流组织，具有很强的经济性。随着第三方物流的发展，它的经济性会发挥的更加充分。第三方物流的经济性，主要包括规模经济性，价值创新性和外部经济性。规模经济性是它的基本特征，价值创新性是它的功能特性，而外部经济性则是它的社会效益的表现。全面理解第三方物流的经济性，有利于企业进行科学的物流决策，有利于政府制定有效的物流发展战略。     

The Institutionalist Theory of Capital in the Modern Business Enterprise: Appropriation and Financialization

We seek to expand and update Baldwin Ranson and Philip Klein’s articles on capital formation and power, published in the Journal of Economic Issues in 1987, by incorporating the importance of intangible assets in the process of capital formation, accumulation, and what we refer to as capital appropriation.     

The Transnational Challenge to the Corporate State

Income inequality is not persistent as far as the Netherlands is concerned. Dutch income inequality diminished with the rise of the welfare state. One of the explanatory factors of the development of income inequality is the corporatist model applied to socio-economic negotiations.

The Dutch case endorses the view that corporatist institutions are significant for income distribution. Corporatism also may positively influence productivity. Therefore, the integration of the successful corporatist countries into the European Union does not imply that they have to converge to the socio-economic governance structure of the other countries. It is likely that European countries, such as the Netherlands, can continue their approach to income equality.     

The Mind of the Social Individual: A Comment on Sherman and Hodgson

In the Spring 1998 (56(1): 47-57) and Fall 1998 (56(3): 295-306, 307-310) issues of this review, Howard Sherman and Geoffrey Hodgson debated, inter alia , the extent to which Veblen-Ayres institutionalism is compatible with Marx and recent Marxist work. This paper argues that the differences between Hodgson and Sherman"s positions do not rely on assumptions of "illogical" behavior, individualist arguments or structural conceptions of the individual. Instead, the debate turns on the authors' respective conceptions of the formation and role of the human mind in what it is to be a social individual.     

Corporate Giantism,Degradation of the Plane of Competition,and Countervailance

Thorstein Veblen argued, in The Higher Learning in America, that universities were at risk of being captured by the same pecuniary aims as business enterprise. His argument remains relevant today, given that many observers claim that higher education is headed for fundamental transformation. These changes are occurring in response to a number of challenges facing higher education in the United States — financial, demographic, and cultural, aiming both to reform what is seen by many as a system resistant to change and accountability, and to take advantage of new technologies seen as improving accessibility and convenience for its consumers, the students. I briefly review Veblen’s argument by using its general contours as a lens for the major disruptions occurring in higher education today, and specifically the rise of for-profit universities, the expansion of online learning and massive open-online courses (MOOCs), and the growing movement to unbundle the educational experience.     

The Idea of Culture in the Social Sciences

An Institutionalist critique that draws from selected contributions of Veblen and Myrdal initiates a convergence debate. Challenged is a Neoclassical interpretation of economic processes expected to lead toward a catching up with respect to per capita output of Germany's poorer eastern region with the richer western region. Economic method is considered, and the Institutionalist School of Thought rooted in contributions of Veblen as well as Myrdal is touted for offering higher levels of explanatory power than the Neoclassical School. We challenge the usefulness of laws in Economic Science, and especially their applicability to the empirical economy. Instead of automatic forces driving a meliorative trend, we seek to establish that human agency and policy play determining roles in affecting economic and societal outcomes in Germany's eastern region.     

Thinking Like a Trader: The Impact of Neoliberal Doctrine on Habits of Thought

Neoliberalism has come out of the financial crisis unscathed. Moreover, it has further asserted its dominance over geopolitical discourse and ideology worldwide. I contend that neoliberal supremacy in the policy arena and upon domestic and international institutions has been largely uncontested because it has penetrated all aspects of life to the extent that it now represents what Thorstein Veblen referred to as “the modern point of view.” Understanding the global power of neoliberalism requires examining not only its well-established hegemony over institutions as social constructs, but also its impact on habits of thought as mental constructs. From a Veblenian perspective, I argue that the neoliberal doctrine generates habits of thought which legitimize the transformation of a marketoriented economy into a full-fledged market society. The impact of the normalization of the neoliberal mode of behavior may, in the end, worsen the fracture between nation and state and unravel the fabric of society by justifying fully detached, emotion-free, and self-centered actions that crowd-out pro-social behaviors and challenge any social conception of the common good.     

先秦儒家的理想经济世界--综论孔子、孟子、荀子的经济思想

“百家争鸣”的学术环境为先秦思想家们提供了丰厚的成长土壤,从宏观角度审视先秦儒家的经济理论主张,对于我们完善社会主义市场经济体系有着重要的借鉴意义。本从春秋战国时期制度变迁的社会背景出发,指出历史赋予思想家们的主要任务,接着从纵向角度分析了孔子、孟子、荀子的经济思想。笔认为,孔子、孟子、荀子分别从价值观、制度纲领、哲学基础和制度的具体设计方面,系统建立起儒家完整的封建社会经济运行的理想框架,他们共同构建的“经济世界”代表了儒家经济思想的最高水平。     

The Evolution and Devolution of Bank Regulation in the United States

Development economics is understood as a postwar phenomenon without antecedents. Yet, Veblen's contribution to development economics was once widely disseminated and acknowledged. Veblen's evolutionary economics centered on historically relative and limited truths applicable to specific cultures. Veblen's growth theory is a theory of economic development: quantitative accumulation is significant because it engenders qualitative change. Veblen's analysis of the harnessing of the economic potential centers on the ability of a society to successfully introduce scientific and technological advances, giving rise to increasing returns as the surplus is invested in industrial activities. Veblen presented oblique comments and startling insights in a non-empirical manner.     

十年反恐对美国及世界政治的影响

2011年5月1日基地组织头目本.拉登被美国击毙。从某种意义上说,这标志着美国十年反恐之路的终结。文章通过比较9.11事件前后的反恐战略来分析十年反恐给美国及世界政治造成的深刻影响。9.11前的美国反恐主要针对其认定的某些＂支恐＂国家。9.11事件发生后,恐怖主义是美国国家安全的最大威胁,美国出台了反恐战略,发动了阿富汗和伊拉克两场战争。美国反恐付出了巨大经济代价,使中东更加动荡不安,也给新兴发展国家提供了崛起的历史机遇。     

Analysing the Symbolic Economy with Pierre Bourdieu: The World of Crafts

Abstract

The world of crafts belongs to the ‘economy of symbolic goods’ identified by Pierre Bourdieu. The theoretical aim of this article is to show that Bourdieu’s analytical framework and methods are particularly useful to comprehend the structure of the diverse French craft economy and to understand the different ways in which symbolic and economic dimensions combine. First, the use of quantitative and qualitative methods (especially geometric data analysis) enables to highlight the structure of the world of crafts which remains divided between a traditional pole and a contemporary pole. Then, the apparent opposition between economic and symbolic aspects of crafts, represented by the two poles, is qualified by pointing out the different forms of ‘denial of the economy’ adopted by artist-craftsmen according to their economic and social characteristics. Finally, the article shows how economic and symbolic dimensions combine through the symbolic construction of the economic value of craft products.     

The Culture of (Dis)Contentment

John Kenneth Galbraith’s 1992 The Culture of Contentment was written to assess the long-term impact of the Reagan/Bush era on American culture and politics. In light of recent electoral politics and outcomes, this article revisits Galbraith’s central argument to consider how the culture of contentment influences our discontented politics today. To do so, the author briefly examines the recent findings of sociologists and political scientists to examine the culture and politics of discontent in the United States at present. The article concludes with a brief examination of Veblen’s views of democracy as a lens through which to examine the foregoing.     

Veblen and the New Growth Theory: Community as the Source of Capital's Productivity

A century ago Thorstein Veblen argued that knowledge, which is produced and possessed by the community as a whole, is the foundation on which the productivity of "capital" rests. Orthodox economists chose to ignore Veblen and instead accepted John Bates Clark's definition of capital and the marginal productivity theory that goes with it. Recently, however, mainstream economists working on the "New Growth Theory" have rejected Clark's approach and have redefined capital so as to emphasize the importance of knowledge as well as its social character. Nevertheless, they still have an important lesson to learn from Veblen about growth, namely that technological development is nothing less than a process of cultural transformation.     

The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism

Darwin uses natural selection in two different senses. Struggle for existence refers to rivalry; survival of the fittest refers to surviving environmental changes. The mainstream vision of economic harmony requires casting natural selection as survival of the fittest. There is no struggle, no conflict. Mainstream economics depicts the selector in the evolutionary game as the firm itself. The mainstream vision requires banishing corporate power and the technological basis of power. For Veblen, corporate power is central. The existence of power implies that among firms, selection assumes the form of struggle. Evolutionary game theory breaks with the mainstream vision; firms are rivals. Evolutionary game theory, however, lacks the "stories" that provide a mapping between theory and reality, something institutionalists are well-positioned to provide. Stories are necessary for understanding corporate power, its origins, its use, and its limitations.