关于社会主义与市场经济相结合的若干思考

对社会主义制度与市场经济能不能结合、如何结合的问题,学术界一直议论纷纷.邓小平提出,市场经济是发展生产的方法、调节经济的手段,资本主义可以用,社会主义也可以用.这才使人们从思想上把市场经济等同于资本主义的观点束缚下解放了出来,从而为我们建立社会主义市场经济体制奠定了理论基础.当人们谈到社会主义市场经济与资本主义市场经济的区别时,往往只是指出社会主义制度与资本主义制度的区别,而没有指出社会主义条件下的市场经济与资本主义条件下的市场经济有什么区别,仿佛不管在什么社会制度下,市场经济都没有什么区别,也不会有区别.笔者认为,社会主义基本制度和市场经济机制在结合过程中,它们的具体实现形式都会发生一定的变化,从而相互渗透、相互影响、相互融合成为一个整体.社会主义制度和市场经济机制各自在坚持自身的本质特征的情况下,在具体实现形式方面相互适应对方的需要做出调整,才能形成作为一个有机整体的社会主义市场经济体制.     

The New Comparative Political Economy

With the collapse of communism in the late 1980s the field of comparative political economy has undergone major revision. Socialism is no longer considered the viable alternative to capitalism it once was. We now recognize that the choice is between alternative institutional arrangements of capitalism. Progress in the field of comparative political economy is achieved by examining how different legal, political and social institutions shape economic behavior and impact economic performance. In this paper we survey the new learning in comparative political economy and suggest how this learning should redirect our attention in economic development.JEL classification: B53, O10, O20, P0     

Cultural globalisation, institutional diversity and the unequal accumulation of intellectual capital

National economies used to be characterised by cultural standardisationand social protection. Globalisation pushes cultural standardisationbeyond the boundaries of national states and induces a globaldilution of the standards of social protection. At the sametime, if national economies specialise according to their comparativeinstitutional advantage, global economic integration may helppromote institutional diversity and variety in welfare policies.However, the institution of a global system of intellectualproperty rights may seriously limit the ‘biodiversity’of capitalism and imply a global revenge of a new internationalform of Taylorism. The overall result may be a very unequalaccumulation of intellectual capital. Paradoxically, the modernglobal economy may end up sharing some aspects of the agrariansocieties that have been displaced by modern nation states.     

Corporate Islam,Global Capitalism and the Performance of Economic Moralities

Recent years have witnessed the rapid expansion of the Islamic economy, which by some estimates has reached a size of US$4 trillion. The growth of the Islamic economy presents an intriguing test case for the compatibility of global capitalism and moral – in this case specifically Islamic – principles. This article adopts a performative lens to draw attention to the role of the World Islamic Economic Forum and the Global Islamic Economy Summit as legitimation mechanisms celebrating economic diversity and the success of Muslim- entrepreneurs with the aim of increasing the visibility of the Islamic economy. Here, a polyphony of Muslim voices is sought to be consolidated into the voice of ‘business Islam’, with important implications for how the Islamic economy is conceived, defined and delineated.     

The Last Half-Century,Societal Change and Politics in America

In a series of articles and books, John Walker and Harold Vatter extended the arguments made earlier by Evsey Domar that the U.S. economy suffers from chronically insufficient demand that leads to growth below capacity. Their analysis of secular growth complements the well-known writings of Hyman Minsky, who also emphasized the role of the “big government” and the “big bank” in stabilizing an unstable economy over the cycle. Like Minsky, Vatter and Walker argued that U.S. capitalism has evolved through several distinct forms, although they characterize the last one hundred years as a period of secular stagnation. This article will summarize, provide support for, and extend the Vatter and Walker approach, concluding with an examination of some of the dangers facing the U.S. economy today.     

Brexit and the Politics of UK Growth Models

Brexit has reopened and repoliticised the debate about future growth models for the UK economy. This contribution argues that this debate is built around historically specific path dependencies that reflect the particular character of public debate about British political economy, while also suggesting that the debate around Brexit takes place at a very distinctive moment in the history of democratic capitalism in Europe. This combination gives the renewed politicisation a specific and perhaps perverse character. The paper considers how we should approach debates about growth models, paying particular attention to the importance of the politics of support. It suggests that recent debate about growth models has been largely subsumed within the politics of Brexit, which has politicised that debate, albeit through the emergent political economy frames that Brexit has provoked. The paper explores the ways in which the demise of three key props of European democratic capitalism – a sustained period of economic growth, a governing philosophy that subordinated the market to wider social purposes and strong political parties – play out in the context of Brexit and the search for a new politics of support.     

An Institutionalist Vision of a Good Economy

The current crisis in global capitalism and the wide-ranging problems that have been caused by the promulgation of a regime of deregulation of goods, services, and labor markets across the globe, but especially in the United States over the past thirty years, may indeed prove to be the end of the neoliberal era. Thus it is an opportune time to reconsider how the global economy could be restructured along more equitable and progressive lines. This paper will present the institutionalist vision of just such a good economy, building on the ideas of Veblen, Ayres, Commons, and Galbraith. The institutionalist vision of a good economy is productive but also non-invidious, democratic but also pragmatic, egalitarian but also efficient. The good economy must therefore be embedded in key social institutions, and be regulated appropriately to preserve the most beneficial social and cultural institutions. The good economy must, furthermore, be a full-employment economy, with jobs available to all who are capable of making productive contributions to their society and to enable those who labor to work in decent conditions. Finally, the good economy must provision all its members with the necessary means of subsistence for them to achieve their human aims.     

An Institutionalist Vision of a Good Economy

The current crisis in global capitalism and the wide-ranging problems that have been caused by the promulgation of a regime of deregulation of goods, services, and labor markets across the globe, but especially in the United States over the past thirty years, may indeed prove to be the end of the neoliberal era. Thus it is an opportune time to reconsider how the global economy could be restructured along more equitable and progressive lines. This paper will present the institutionalist vision of just such a good economy, building on the ideas of Veblen, Ayres, Commons, and Galbraith. The institutionalist vision of a good economy is productive but also non-invidious, democratic but also pragmatic, egalitarian but also efficient. The good economy must therefore be embedded in key social institutions, and be regulated appropriately to preserve the most beneficial social and cultural institutions. The good economy must, furthermore, be a full-employment economy, with jobs available to all who are capable of making productive contributions to their society and to enable those who labor to work in decent conditions. Finally, the good economy must provision all its members with the necessary means of subsistence for them to achieve their human aims.     

Darwinian paradigm,cultural evolution and human purposes: on F.A. Hayek’s evolutionary view of the market

The claim that the Darwinian paradigm of blind-variation-and-selective-retention can be generalized from the biological to the socio-cultural realm has often been questioned because of the critical role played by human purposeful design in the process of cultural evolution. In light of the issue of how human purposes and evolutionary forces interact in socio-economic processes the paper examines F.A. Hayek’s arguments on the “extended order” of the market (capitalism), in particular with regard to their policy implications. Its focus is on the tension that exists in Hayek’s work between a rational liberal and an agnostic evolutionary perspective. A re-construction of his arguments is suggested that allows for a reconciliation of these seemingly contradictory views.     

Austrian Economics,Socialism and Impure Forms of Economic Organisation

Modern supporters of the Austrian school of economics maintain that their critical stance towards impure forms of economic organisation - such as the mixed economy - grew out of the arguments of Mises and Hayek during the socialist calculation debate of the 1930s. The paper assesses the two theorists, contributions in the debate and argues that their ideas cannot provide the basis for a general rejection of impure forms of economic organisation. First of all, and contrary to most modern Austrians, who consider the contributions of Mises and Hayek as essentially consistent, it is argued that Hayek's critique of socialism is much more effective than Mises' as it rests on his concept of tacit knowldge and on an evolutionary account of the emergence of capitalist institutions. However, the paper goes on to argue that, if Hayek's critique of state intervention is to have any relevance for contemporary capitalist economies, it must be in a position to show the non-viability not only of a fully centrally planned economy of the Soviet type but also of the mixed economy. It is argued that it is precisely in this that Hayek's evolutionism fails, for his teleological approach is not persuasive in ruling out the possibility of impure forms of capitalism in a manner that is consistent with truly evolutionary - i.e. non-teleological - ideas.     

‘Conscience Capitalism’ and the Neoliberalisation of the Non-Profit Sector

This article analyses a range of initiatives, labelled as ‘conscience capitalist’, that have become prominent since the 2008 financial crash. Conscience capitalism encompasses projects emerging in both the for- and non-profit sectors that seek to connect neoliberal capitalism with concepts of morality and conscience. The article begins by unpacking conscience capitalism, showing how its for-profit advocates seek to transform capitalism by orienting it towards accounting for social and environmental externalities, and how its non-profit supporters seek to incorporate components of neoliberalism to serve their environmentally and/or socially focused agendas. Conscience capitalism appears to be a re-evaluation and call for reform of the prominent forms of neoliberalism. However, this article argues that, rather than comprising a hindrance, conscience capitalism offers a means of advancing the project. This is evident in its attempts to reconstitute social and environmental externalities in terms relatable to the market, and represent social and environmental problems in quantitative terms in which the success of market-based solutions can be read. Acknowledging some of the successes of conscience capitalist campaigns, the article concludes by arguing that this continued neoliberalisation of the non-profit sector favours campaigns consistent with neoliberalism and has the potential to undermine the democratic governance of non-profits.     

On the political economy of skill in the advanced industrial nations

The importance of education and training policy is being enhanced by its increasingly high profile as a competitive strategy in the age of global capitalism. This article argues that human–capital theory, because it objectifies skill and fails to uncover its social context, offers an inadequate framework for understanding the relationship between the economy and skill systems. An adequate economic framework for understanding changes in education and training systems must be linked to a theory of institutional change in the economy. The article used one such theory, in building on the contributions of the regulation school but concludes that, contra the ideology of post–Fordism and of liberal political economists, a high–wage/high–skills strategy is only one route for capital accumulation in the 1990s, and that this route will only be achieved through conflict. The article concludes that, this used alongside other policies, a progressive education strategy which could be linked with the usage of high skills in industry would have some chance of success in the current era.     

债务危机:困境、根源及其解决机制——发展中国家与发达国家的比较分析

债务危机在全球化时代成为愈益常见的经济现象,它不仅发生在经济相对落后的发展中国家,也发生在经济较为发达的发达国家。那么引致债务危机的根源究竟在于世界经济发展的必然因素还是偶然因素,本文对此展开剖析。文章认为,金融资本主义的全球影响、虚拟经济超越实体经济以及国际和国内经济环境的复杂多变是引发债务危机的重要因素,而经济、政治和社会三位一体的政策选择则是解决债务危机的根本之道。     

State capitalism and the rent-seeking conjecture

The notion that state capitalism (an economic system “in which the state functions as the leading economic actor and uses markets primarily for political gain”) is a new form of capitalism emerging in the global arena has been recently advanced by several authors. This paper explores the problem of the nature of this system in the light of these claims to novelty. What are its main features as described by these authors? Is state capitalism distinctive from other forms of capitalism or other types of economic systems? Are we really witnessing the emergence of a new type of economic system? To address such questions the paper starts by trying to place the model of state capitalism within the traditional comparative economic systems framework. The inconclusive result leads to a different approach in which the concept of rent-seeking society is used to underlie the structural similarities between mercantilism, real life socialism and state capitalism. The article argues that the conjecture that what has been labeled “state capitalism” is yet another form of rent-seeking system is both robust and worth further investigating.     

Post-capitalist Development in Latin America’s Left Turn: Beyond Peronism and the Magical State

The persistence of struggles by popular sectors in the context of the pink tide has generated ongoing debates about how to interpret the region’s left turn. For some, these movements are understood as forming part of a tense but ultimately productive relationship with left governments in the pursuit of post-neoliberal development. For others, it points to potentially irreconcilable political differences, and neoliberal continuities in pink tide governance. In this paper, I address these debates by presenting research on two social movements: Argentina’s recuperated enterprises and Venezuela’s popular economy. Using a Marxian-inspired, situated case study approach, I argue that these movements can be understood as ‘post-capitalist struggles’, that is, attempts to articulate new forms of democracy and cooperation that point beyond capitalism. As such, these movements push beyond the politics of Kirchnerismo and Chavismo that reproduce, albeit in new forms, the limitations to post-capitalist development associated with Peronism and the ‘magical state’. These movements therefore reveal both the region’s potential post-capitalist future, and the barriers that stand against it in the context of the region’s latest phase of development.     

The Dynamics of a Racialized,Gendered, Ethnicized,and Economically Stratified Society: Understanding the Socio-Economic Status of Women in Zimbabwe

Feminist literature attempting to understand the status of women in Zimbabwe has seldom considered patterns of social exclusion and the dynamics of a racialized society that institutionalized racial supremacy as an ideology for organizing social life. Even now, too often we believe, feminist theorists analyze the status of women with the assumption that patriarchy is the single source of the oppression of women. Using the notion of a racialized society we account for the workings of gender oppression within the historical context of Zimbabwe. We show how in a racialized society, gender, race, ethnicity, and class operate intricately together to relegate African women to the lowest socio-economic status. Even with policies to redress earlier imbalances, women endure all forms of injustices. We focus on the informal sector as illustrative of one sector where these injustices continue.     

Women and the social economy in transitional Russia

The present article analyses the role of the social economy in transitional Russia and its consequences for women. The changes in the economic system in the former Soviet Union and its effects is often analysed in general terms. One interesting aspect is whether the changes have similar effects on men and women. The aim here is to highlight how women's situation changes when the economic system changes and how Russian women adapt to these changes. Three types of activities which are carried out by women within the social economy are discussed below, where each of these activities are built on strategies for survival from the Soviet period: distribution of vital goods in rural areas, distribution of information to women and production of services. Although the social economy has a considerable gap to fill in Russia, this has not yet implied that the cooperative sector flourishes. Instead there is a danger that women go from paid work in the state sector to non-paid work within the voluntary sector.     

Religion,economics and politics: The Bishops and Keynes in the post-Keynesian ERA

This paper makes a proposal for reintroducing sociological or social economics into contemporary economic science. Such a reintroduction is proposed to be substantive, by analyzing the social structuring of the economy, and formal, by including sociological/social economics in the current (JEL) classification system of economic disciplines (code A.15). Both epistemological and ontological arguments can be presented to support the proposal. Epistemological arguments invoke the presence of essential components of sociological economics in the development of economic thought, and ontological arguments stress the role of social factors in economic life. In this paper I present primarily epistemological (theoretical-methodological) arguments for sociological economics, and secondarily ontological ones. I show that the present designation, sociology of economics, is something different from sociological or social economics in that the former refers to economic epistemology (knowledge) and the latter to economic ontology (reality). I conclude that, in addition to a sociology of economic science, we need a sociology of economic life.     

Metaphors,social practices,and economic life: ASE presidential address

Our lived experiences of the economy shape the metaphors that we use to describe the economy. Yet, any particular metaphor can only provide a partial perspective. There are two ways our conceptual frameworks have reflected partial perspectives. The first is historical: our conceptual frameworks tend to build upon ideas developed during the factory age. A machine metaphor, grounded in the industrial age, focuses on the transformation of resources into outputs, but it obscures other aspects of economic life. Second, economic concepts and metaphors are affected by our personal standpoints and our social identities. As social economists, we recognize that our economy is embedded in society, a society in which social identities such as class, gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality shape our standpoints. To fully understand the continuities and changes in how social provisioning is organized, we need to be attentive to these social identities and how they are constituted and transformed through social practices.     

The meta-crisis of secular capitalism

The current global economic crisis concerns the way in which contemporary capitalism has turned to financialisation as a double cure for both a falling rate of profit and a deficiency of demand. Although this turning is by no means unprecedented, policies of financialisation have depressed demand (in part as a result of the long-term stagnation of average wages) while at the same time not proving adequate to restore profits and growth. This paper argues that the current crisis is less the ‘normal’ one that has to do with a constitutive need to balance growth of abstract wealth with demand for concrete commodities. Rather, it marks a meta-crisis of capitalism that is to do with the difficulties of sustaining abstract growth as such. This meta-crisis is the tendency at once to abstract from the real economy of productive activities and to reduce everything to its bare materiality. By contrast with a market economy that binds material value to symbolic meaning, a capitalist economy tends to separate matter from symbol and reduce materiality to calculable numbers representing ‘wealth’. Such a conception of wealth rests on the aggregation of abstract numbers that cuts out all the relational goods and the ‘commons’ on which shared prosperity depends.