The Market System: What It Is, How It Works, and What To Make of It - Hardcover

Lindblom, Charles E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300087527 ISBN 13: 9780300087529

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2001

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

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 Attempt to Understand and Shape Society, published by Yale University Press, and Politics and Markets: The World's Political-Economic Systems

Reviews

Ever since the worldwide collapse of Soviet-style communism, the triumph of the "market system" has been spoken of as a fait accompli, while the market has been touted as a panacea for every social ill from failing schools to Third World poverty. Lindblom (Politics and Markets: The World's Political-Economic System) explains what this "market system" is, details how it works, makes a strong case for its advantages and keenly outlines some of its limitations. Exploring the relationship between markets and democracy, for instance, he points out that while it's true that all democratic societies have market systems, we can't conclude that markets always foster democracy, because many antidemocratic societies also have market systems. Addressing nothing less than the nature of cooperation in human society, his discussion spans history, philosophy and political theory, an unusually multidisciplinary approach for an economics text. Lindblom, a professor of economics and political science at Yale University, also explores the relation of the market system to efficiency, ethics, social equality, power, the natural environment and culture. Posing bold questions such as "[I]s there in our time an alternative to the market system... ?" Lindblom provides refreshingly few definitive answers, making his the most mild-mannered economics book published in some time, as well as one of the most cerebral. (Apr.) Forecast: Admirably clear and penetrating, this book deserves to find a broad audience interested in an intellectual approach to economics. Unfortunately, since the title sounds dull, the author is little-known to general readers and the book is hard to categorize, it may not achieve the sales it deserves.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war have made the terms communism and capitalism seem obsolete. Instead, we have the "market system." Russia's deteriorating, gangster-driven economy has been labeled a market system. So has Britain's so-called third way. At the same time, the excesses of globalism and the growing power of corporations, the depletion of natural resources and the degradation of the environment, challenges to welfare, and unprecedented prosperity have all been attributed to the market system. Lindblom's goal is to reconcile these discrepancies. A professor emeritus at Yale University, Lindblom neither "celebrates" nor "deplores" the market system; he hopes to have us understand it. He defines the market system as the organization or coordination of "activities not through governmental planning but through the mutual interactions of buyers and sellers" and explains that it encompasses labor, agricultural, capital, consumer, and business markets. As Lindblom makes these abstractions more concrete, he also catalogs the benefits and liabilities of the market system. David Rouse
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300087527
• ISBN 13: 9780300087529
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296