ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter analyses a central question of modern society: how does one best use ‘the instrument of the market’ – this being a basic mechanism of organizational efficiency in dynamic economies characterized by a high degree of uncertainty – in such a way as to prevent the market itself from turning everyone and everything into expendable tools, with consequences that are ever more disastrous for equity and for human dignity? The purpose here is to envisage the possibility and, more importantly, the necessity of economic forms adapted to human society that are different from those that have emerged from the spontaneous transformation of the Western world. Persisting in the denial and ignorance that such a possibility of change is indeed possible will inevitably lead to the (often fanatical) conviction that the capitalistic market, with all its degenerations and inefficiencies, is the unavoidable, even if bitter, outcome of institutional evolution-a necessary, teleological fruit of human exertion: ‘the end of history’. Students’ and practical people’s attitude towards social phenomena oscillates between two opposite positions: the idea that those phenomena must be considered and accepted as spontaneous events; the pretension to govern them. This chapter points out the intermingling of the two aspects in the life of each social system. As a matter of fact, the history of human societies and logical sense confirm that spontaneous forces and their governance always operate together, even if the one or the other can be largely prevalent in various cases. The suffocation of spontaneous forces obstructs creativity thus causing stagnation. But, on the other hand, the ability to govern society is more and more required by the steady acceleration, via creativity, of social change. Here we shall insist on the possibility, which after all is a necessity in the modern world, to drive market economies outside a capitalistic context, and the way to do that. Therefore, the aspect of choice-possibility will be emphasized, after having insisted, in Chapter 5, on the aspect of necessity. To analyse this topic with the depth and the breadth it deserves, we will first sketch a brief account of those institutions and forms of civilization that in the course of history have promoted the rise and spread of the market, eventually
making it into an organizational necessity of modern economies. This account will be concluded by a summary of the pros and cons of the capitalistic market. The subsequent step concentrates on the notion of competition, and in particular on the role of the entrepreneur and the significance of the rate of profit as a gauge of accountability. This is essential in order to highlight the powers of resilience of the market, and to show its flexibility as an organizational tool with regard to various kinds of ideological options: for instance we will contemplate how it may be extended to either private or public systems of ownership. In section 8.4 we discuss how the market may be turned into a mere mechanism for the imputation of costs and efficiency, and this discussion is at the heart of the following proposal for a non-capitalistic market and the merits of its social openness. This argument will then lead directly to the treatment of a defining, and fundamental component of the system, upon which all reformist propositions impinge by necessity: the nature and management of the interest rate and the attending financial system. These are two dominating and interconnected aspects of traditional economic systems that increasingly thwart entrepreneurship and stifle production since they are predicated on a high concentration of economic power in the hands of a social class de facto devoted to speculation rather than production. We offer a solution to this problem, and conclude the essay with a few considerations on the international order. The goal here is to devise a coherent reformist agenda articulated in several key points pertaining to the vital nodes of the economic system.1 This is just a beginning, a first attempt: naturally, given the complexities of the issue, the remedies recommended are by no means exhaustive, but merely indicative of the broad path all humanist forces should undertake together in days to come.
