ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the tradition of civil economy transcends the opposition between economics and moral values, or between community and market. It presents a short reflection on the roots of the market/gift and economy/society dichotomies. The chapter then analyzes Adam Smith's approach to the issue of market/community to set the stage for my presentation of an alternative perspective, here termed Civil Economy. Finally, it focuses on the vision of the commerce/community nexus in the Civil Economy approach. The Civil Economy framework adopts a less dualistic approach to the relationship between commerce and community than does standard economics, portraying those two aspects of social life as being integrated by a common reliance on the role of reciprocity in human interaction. Genovesi portrays market relationships as relations of mutual assistance, hence neither impersonal nor anonymous. One of the key elements in Genovesis theory of Civil Economy is public faith, something he considers as the true precondition for economic development.
