The Philosophy and Economics of Market Socialism: A Critical Study - Hardcover

Arnold, N. Scott

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195088271 ISBN 13: 9780195088274

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1994

Synopsis

N. Scott Arnold argues that the most defensible version of a market socialist economic system would be unable to realize widely held socialist ideals and values. In particular, it would be responsible for widespread and systematic exploitation. The charge of exploitation, which is really a charge of injustice, has typically been made against capitalist systems by socialists. This book argues that it is market socialism--the only remaining viable form of socialism--that is systematically exploitative.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

In this closely reasoned examination of the case for market socialism, N. Scott Arnold argues that even the most defensible version of market socialism would be deeply flawed. Specifically, it would be responsible for systematic and widespread exploitation. The charge of exploitation, which is really a charge of injustice, has typically been made against capitalist systems by socialists. This book argues that it is actually market socialism - the only remaining viable form of socialism - that is systematically exploitative. Recent work on the economics of contracts and organizations is used to show that the characteristic organizations of a free enterprise system - the classical capitalist firm and the modern corporation - are structured in such a way that opportunities for exploitation among economic actors (e.g., managers, workers, providers of capital, customers) are minimized. By contrast, Arnold argues, in a market socialist regime of worker cooperatives, opportunities for exploitation abound. Arnold locates his comparative analysis of market socialism and the free enterprise system in the larger context of the capitalism/socialism debate. In his account of this debate - and in his contribution to it - he offers a distinctive and attractive vision of the relationship between economics and political philosophy. This vision clearly identifies the respective contributions that economics and political philosophy can make to the fundamental question of how social institutions are to be evaluated.

About the Author:

N. Scott Arnold is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0195088271
• ISBN 13: 9780195088274
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320