ABSTRACT
Economic competition is widely believed to be a critical—even the critical—social process in market societies. From a market perspective, the competitive pursuit of gain by individuals and firms creates exchange conditions that result in allocative efficiency, the greatest good for the greatest number. This utilitarian ideology is the foundation of modern economics and, not coincidentally, of numerous legal and political institutions. Economic utilitarianism even achieves moral embodiment in an esteemed social role, the entrepreneur. Competition and its outcomes approach the status of natural law—an expected, even inevitable product of human interaction.
