Overview

In the wake of the collapse of communism, we hear much about the victory of the 'market system'. Just what is the market system? This clear and accessible book begins by answering this question, then goes on to explain how the market system works and what it can and cannot do. Charles E. Lindblom, writing in nontechnical language for a wide general audience, offers an evenhanded view of the market system. His analysis of the great questions that surround the market system is sometimes unexpected, always illuminating: Is the market system efficient? Is it democratic? Does it despoil the environment? Does it perpetuate inequalities? Does it debase personality and culture? Big choices are yet to be made about the future of the market system, observes Lindblom. He outlines what these choices are and how they will affect not only our economic well-being but also our social and political lives. For market systems organise or coordinate more than just the flow of commodities, he shows. They influence human behaviour in all its dimensions.

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9780300087529

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Reviews

Lindblom offers a balanced and novel treatment of a very important set of questions. This is a book of grand scope by an outstanding scholar. Samuel Bowles, University of Massachusetts, Amherst The Market System resplendently assesses the character, rules, advantages, and shortcomings of the central institution coordinating modern economic and social life. An unsurpassed guide. Ira I. Katznelson, Columbia University Anyone who wants to know more about the plusses and minuses of the market system, how government can help or hinder its workings, and the direction in which it is likely to move should read this clear, fair, and fascinating book. Robert Heilbroner

A roundabout but illuminating attempt to define a slippery economic construct.. Although the market system is roughly familiar to all of us, writes Lindblom (Economics/Yale Univ.), not even economists wholly understand it. That is understandable, given all the things that the market system is, at least in the author's account: an extraordinary social process, a motivator and coordinator of human activity, a peacekeeper and cause of conflict, an ally and enemy of freedom, a destroyer and producer of inequalities. Lindblom observes that all existing societies make use of markets, but not all have developed mechanisms whereby the conjunction of buyer and seller takes precedence over any program of state planning; the market system, in his definition, involves the societywide coordination of human activities not by central command but by mutual interactions in the form of transactions. His insistence on the supremacy of individuals is not mere libertarian cant; he recognizes that certain market-state hybrids have proved effective, that the state can perform certain needed tasks that the market cannot, and that individuals and corporations are capable of extremely bad faith. But, he adds, at its best the market system is a pattern of cooperative behavior where people somehow overcome naked self-interest to act in ways that yield mutual benefit, and where individuals, by voting with their wallets, have a direct influence on how that behavior is conducted. The leading enemies of that cooperative system are not the statist ideologies of old, Lindblom suggests, but instead reckless banking and incompetent governmental regulation of financial markets, which can instantly undo the efforts of millions. But even where relatively unhindered and apparently smoothly functioning market systems prevail, and even where consumer goods are more and more available in an ever more marketized world, he notes that people are declaring themselves to be increasingly less happy - yet another of many puzzles that the market poses..More readable than most studies of its kind, Lindblom's overview raises as many questions as it answers - and offers much food for thought.. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

Charles E. Lindblom is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Economics and Political Science at Yale University. His prize-winning books include Inquiry and Change: The Troubled Atlempt to Understand and Shape Society (0 300 05667 2, pb. ?13.95), and Politics and Markets: The World's Political-Economic Systems.

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