Two Views of Social Justice: A Catholic/Georgist Dialogue

Sixteen scholars have come together in this issue to examine eight social‐justice themes from the perspectives of Catholic Social Thought and the philosophy of Henry George. The themes they address are natural law, human nature, the nature of work, the nineteenth‐century papal encyclical Rerum novarum, causes of war, immigration, development, and wealth, and neighborhood revitalization. While they sometimes wrangle with each other, their common aspiration is the same as their nineteenth‐century predecessors: to find solutions to the human suffering caused by injustice.     

Human Nature from a Catholic Perspective

Catholic views on personhood and human nature include emphasis on the dignity of each person, from womb to tomb. The claims made for this inviolable dignity invariably stem from the recognition that all human beings, regardless of their state of dependency, are made in the image of God and are thus the bearers of certain moral rights. But in our fallen state that image is wounded and needs to be repaired. Hence, Christians need to learn to recapitulate the life of Christ in their own lives by growing through the stages of human life according to the model that He presents to us. There are not only individual but corporate aspects to this growth. Catholic Social Teaching offers insights on the corporate and social condition in which we find ourselves. It has a healthy respect for the economic laws of the market and for the technical intricacies of efficient decision‐making processes in local, national, and world economies, but out of respect for human nature there are moral norms that need to be respected and that may never be violated. On the topic of property and private ownership, considerable attention is given to the very purpose of private property (namely, to provide individuals with a kind of independence that enhances their ability to do their duties to their dependence and that extends their freedom). But always correlated with this defense of private property is a sense of the social demands on private property that come from the common good and the communal purpose of all earthly goods.     

Religion and International Trade: Does the Sharing of a Religious Culture Facilitate the Formation of Trade Networks?

A bstract .   Despite interest in the influence of religion on economic activity by early economists like Adam Smith, modern economists have done little research on the subject. In light of the apparent religious fervor in many parts of the global economy, economists' seeming lack of interest in studying how religious cultures enhance or retard the globalization of economic activity is especially surprising. This article makes a contribution toward filling this void by examining how religion affects international trade. Specifically, we examine whether the sharing of religious cultures enables the formation of exchange networks that can overcome the failure or nonexistence of other social and economic institutions necessary for completing complex international transactions. We apply an expanded gravity model of international trade to control for a variety of factors that determine trade, and we use two recently developed regression methods, scaled OLS and nonlinear least squares, to exploit the model to its fullest. We find that the sharing of Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, Eastern Orthodox Catholic, and Protestant cultures by people in different countries has a significantly positive influence on bilateral trade, all other things equal. The sharing of Roman Catholic culture has a significantly negative influence on bilateral trade, and the sharing of Islamic and Judaic cultures neither promotes nor discourages international exchange. These results suggest that some religious cultures are more conducive than others for forming international trade networks.     

The CAPITAL in Social Capital: An Austrian Perspective

In recent decades economists started discovering the importance of the social dimension of economic interactions. Contemporary economics has borrowed several sociological concepts for its own use, among the most important being the concept of social capital. However, this transfer within disciplines did not occur without a loss—the nature of social capital in economics remains confused and obscure. The purpose of this article is to clarify it, specify the possibilities for its use, and discuss their limits. It is argued that economics once also possessed a view of human beings that was more “socialized” than the modern neoclassical Homo oeconomicus, and that this more “socialized” view still exists in the Austrian school of economics. Because this tradition of economic thought has also developed an elaborate capital theory, it can serve as an ideal source where we can look for inspiration in the current social capital debate. First, social capital is (re)defined along these lines as an individual's asset connected with recognized reciprocity (as opposed to interactions usually classified as “altruistic”). Then major critical claims about the relation between social and physical capital are answered and the connection between social capital, trust, and social norms is described.     

From The Wealth of Nations to Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples): Wealth and Development from the Perspective of the Catholic Social Thought Tradition

Catholic social thought (CST) looks at economic development from the broader framework of authentic human development. It is only by viewing both man's dignity and his social nature that we include the full nature of the human being. In CST wealth is understood based on its role in promoting authentic human development. Wealth is a gift from God, with humans participating in its creation, and its creation, distribution, and its use must be carried out in a manner that respects God's law (justice and charity). Furthermore, man should never place wealth above God or above humans. Those who control wealth have special responsibilities with regards to their use of it; thus the right of private property is always restricted by the social responsibility to use it towards the common good. The goal must be the development of the whole person and all people. Wealth is socially created and thus must be distributed, at least partially, among the entire community. Economic development needs to be grounded in social justice and its two co‐principles, charity and justice. Grounding economic development in the authentic development of the person means placing the people of the poor countries at the center of their development drama, both as the leading actors and as the directors.     

The Throwaway Culture in the Economy of Exclusion: Pope Francis and Economists on Waste

An essential part of Pope Francis’s critique of the “economy of exclusion” is the concept of the “throwaway culture,” which is an attitude and a reality that goes beyond mere exclusion. Francis is building on critiques of consumerism (what John Paul II called “economism”) that noted both the environmental impacts of unnecessary waste and the social and human impact of reducing humans to mere consumers—the idea that happiness is shopping. Francis adds to this a concern for the people on the margins of society who are treated as disposable and for the consequences of climate change, both of which are connected to the throwaway attitude. This article looks at Francis’s views within the tradition of Catholic social thought and at how economists, especially Adam Smith, who provided the foundation for modern economics, looked at waste and consumerism.     

The Sociology of Knowledge as a Tool for Research Into the History of Economic Thought

A bstract . Hill and Rouse's formulation of Mannheim's framework for the sociology of knowledge as a means of examining the history of economic thought is rejected although it is held that they render an important service to economics by arguing the need for employment of the sociology of knowledge as a research tool. They have not appropriated Mannheim's categories authentically and they apply them in an overly simplified and undialectical manner. Even Mannheim's authentic formulation of the sociology of knowledge suffered limitations which more recent work enables us to overcome. What is believed to be a superior sociology of knowledge framework for investigating the evolution of economic thought is constructed by joining the Berger-Luckmann model of legitimation with Habermas's philosophical anthropology. Increasingly economists are recognizing that their discipline is in a state of crisis. The crucial issue is how we can better understand the sociological nature of economic thought—its social functioning—to enable us to formulate our own economic theory so as to maximize human welfare.     

纵观企业理论变迁史

企业是社会经济发展到一定阶段的历史产物,随着时代的变迁和发展,对企业理论的解释也在不断演化,各学派的经济学家对企业的阐述可谓是众说纷纭。亚当·斯密、马克思、马歇尔、科斯和奈特等经济学家都对企业理论的发展起到了至关重要的作用。文章从企业理论发展的时间脉络,梳理出两百多年来出现的一些关键的企业理论,以及笔者对众多企业理论的个人观点,揭示出企业理论由抽象的理想型向现实企业逐步靠近的发展方向。     

Collateralized Social Relations: The Social in Economic Calculation

Traditionally, economists have viewed social relations as "friction" or "impediments" to exchange and have excluded social relations from their analyses by assuming autonomous actors. Recently, however, a number of scholars—economists, sociologists, anthropologists, and other social scientists—have begun to discuss the numerous ways in which social arrangements both prompt and channel economic activity. Rational choice theory, social capital and network analysis, and agency and game theory, are among those approaches that consider the effects of social relations on economic action. In this paper we extend that discussion by arguing that social relations can function as "collateral" or assurance that an economic transaction will proceed as agreed by the parties involved. We review recent microeconomic theories and conjecture how they might be developed following this observation, which is derived from sociological and anthropological studies of economic action and organization.     

Homo Economicus Meets G. H. Mead: A Contribution to the Critique of Economic Theory

A bstract .   The relation between economic behavior and morality remains a live issue within economics and cognate disciplines. The standard view among economists themselves has been that while moral positions (understood broadly) may motivate our behavior, they do not capacitate or enable it. On this view the figure of Homo economicus , representing the how as against the why of our actions, must be understood as resolutely amoral. In this article, we attempt to recover the logic of this position, as well as those of critics who would modify the standard view in some way. Although also critical of the conventional economics-and-ethics divide, we argue that Homo economicus would benefit from a more fundamental rethinking, one that takes account of the theory of the self and its acts, as developed by the social psychologist G. H. Mead. On a Meadian view the economic actor would neither have to grow additional capacities in order to coordinate with his or her fellows, as the evolutionary games theorist's agent has to do, nor depart or deviate from purposeful behavior, as does Homo sociologicus . On a Meadian view, economic capacity has to be more richly endowed than standard Homo economicus in order to do what it is supposed to do, but it is recognizably still a single, purposeful capacity.     

The Endogenous Economist:

A bstract . In the social sciences there exist links of communication and influence between the scientists and the actors of the modelled social systems. Social scientists are therefore endogenous parts of the systems which they study. Theories and models shouid be self-referential. The treatment of information in the rational choice models of the new classical theory, with its core assumption of rational expectations , has stopped short of extending the concept of endogeneity to the economists themselves. Economic theory proceeds on the assumption that it yields the true model and that the actors in the system share this same model even though economists have not yet agreed on this unique model. Moreover, it assumes that economists' disputes about the true model do not prompt the actors of the system to take positions and opt for one or the other of the discussed models. The use of a unique model perspective to interpret the response of financial markets to monetary announcements leads to inconclusive interpretations of the evidence. These findings are better interpreted as the result of multi model competition that has spilled over from academic science to the financial markets themselves.     

自然辩证法在石羊河水资源开发利用过程中的应用

自然辩证法是关于自然界和科学技术发展的一般规律,在人类认识自然和改造自然的具体活动中,体现了马克思主义哲学的世界观、认识论和方法论的统一。水资源开发利用作为协调人与自然关系的实践活动,必须遵循自然辩证法。本文利用自然辩证法的一般规律,从自然观、辩证观、科学技术观等不同层面,对石羊河流域水资源的合理开发、优化配置、节约利用、有效保护和科学管理等提出了相关建议,以实现当地水资源开发利用的可持续发展,为经济社会发展和生态文明建设提供有力的理论支撑。     

Catholic Social Thought and New Institutional Economics: An Assessment of Their Affinities and Areas of Potential Convergence

The potential link between Catholic social teaching (CST) and the theoretical developments associated with new institutional economics (NIE) are explored. The emphasis is on the contributions of two Nobel Prize winners in economics—Douglass C. North and Elinor Ostrom—and on the work of political scientist Vincent Ostrom. By adjusting the neoclassical presumptions dominating modern economic theory to include culture, ideas, and religious beliefs in the analysis of economic behavior, the economic and social theorizing developed by these scholars advances a framework that has significant affinities with CST’s foundational critique of economic concepts and theories and with its normative position regarding the nature and functioning of social and economic systems.     

生态自然观指导下的景观规划与设计研究

生态环境质量的下降制约和影响着我国社会经济的可持续发展以及人类自身的生存,生态自然观的出现为保护生态环境,缓解生态压力指明了新的方向。从生态自然观的角度来谈当前对融入自然环境中的景观规划设计的理解,将会为我们的景观建设提供深层次的方法论和理论支持。     

Predicting Major Economic Events with Accuracy: A New Framework for Scientific Macroeconomic Models

Despite intense studies over the last several hundred years, the questions about causes, forecasting, and prevention of economic crises remain unsolved. The poor performance of macroeconomic models during the Great Recession of 2008 has forced many economists to reexamine macroeconomic theories and search for credible alternatives to the agent‐based and general‐equilibrium models now currently used by most economists. This article derives a new category of macroeconomic model and applies it conceptually to explain the causes of economic crises. This model, known as the indeterministic balance sheet plus (IBS+) model, is a special breed of accounting models. It takes an indeterministic view of future balance sheets. This article proposes a classification of causes of economic crises using IBS+ models to analyze balance sheets of key economic sectors. Most economic crises are caused by mismanagement of balance sheets by key economic players, not by any fundamental flaw of capitalism. The frequency of economic crises can be minimized by proper risk management practices, but economic crises can never be completely eliminated. Historically, treating mismanagement of balance sheets as the main cause of economic crises is a generalization of Austrian business cycle theory, Fisher's debt deflation theory, and Minsky's financial instability hypothesis.     

Agency in Health Care: Lessons for Economists from Sociologists

A bstract . What economists can learn from sociologists with regard to the economic theory of agency in health care is considered. Whilst the concept of agency has become widely accepted in health economics , its application to the doctor-patient relationship remains somewhat limited. Research is needed on the nature of the patient's and doctor's utility functions before an efficient outcome in health care can be achieved. Economists have much to learn from sociologists concerning the nature of patient's and doctor's utility functions. Only when economists take account of this literature will moves towards an efficient outcome in health care be achieved.     

Social Classes in Classical and Marxist Political Economy

The notion social class attains a well-defined theoretical content in the works of the classical political economists, who defined classes on the basis of the specific income form that each category of people (class) obtains. This approach to class constitutes a first form of a 'friendly merger' between political economy and sociology. When combined with the classical labor value theory, it has led to a theory of class exploitation of the laboring class by the capitalist class. As economic theory became increasingly apologetic after the 'Marginalist Revolution' (setting itself the aim of justifying capitalism), the theory of class has been totally banished from the corpus of 'modern (neoclassical) economic science.' This paper claims that the scientific elements inherent in classical political economy's class theory were preserved by the Marxist class theory, which further revolutionized the classical approach, creating a new, purely non-economistic and non-mechanistic 'relationist' class theory, and forming thus a vivid economic-sociological approach to social classes. On the basis of the Marxist approach, complex problems concerning the class structure of contemporary societies can be tackled.     

The symbiosis of entities in the social engagement network: The role of social ventures

Social entrepreneurship is increasingly recognized as a mechanism for creating social and economic value. By applying population ecology, resource dependency and resource-based view perspectives, this paper develops a conceptual model to provide greater insight into how social entrepreneurship ventures collaborate with other organizations in a network to fulfill resource requirements. Through this process social ventures address unmet social needs to create value which leads to the development and growth of individuals, communities, and regions. Using a large city's economic development actors involved in small business promotion as test cases, this exploratory study illustrates that social ventures effectively acquire resources from the primary social engagement network actors: corporations, governments, and other social ventures. The framework introduced in the paper provides a means by which to better understand the context in which relevant social engagement players in a network exist and the synergies that they can develop.     

Solving the “Lachmann Problem”: Orientation,Individualism, and the Causal Explanation of Socioeconomic Order

This article examines the question of whether social institutions should be treated as possessing the sui generis causal power to influence people's actions. It does so by means of a case study of the work of the Austrian economist Ludwig Lachmann. Lachmann's account of how social institutions facilitate intentional human agency in the face of uncertainty contains significant ambiguities and tensions, stemming from his reluctance to acknowledge the causal efficacy of social institutions. The conceptual resources required to overcome these problems are to be found in realist social philosophy and social theory. The proposed resolution comes at a price, however, for it calls into question Lachmann's self‐avowed commitment to methodological individualism.     

Social Structures of Accumulation: A “Punctuated” View of Embeddedness

This article starts from the institutional/evolutionary insight that economic processes are necessarily embedded in broader sets of social institutions and that these institutions change over time. It uses a Marxian framework, the Social Structure of Accumulation school, to argue that this change is not gradual or continuous. Rather, wide‐ranging institutional transformations follow periods of capitalist crisis, setting the stage for renewed accumulation and, eventually, new crises. This leads to a punctuated pattern of successive stages of capitalism.