William M. Dugger - Böcker

This collection of original essays makes a unique contribution to both the radical and institutionalist economics literature by explicitly identifying and promoting the radical dimension of institutional economics. According to the authors (Young Turks in the institutionalist school), radical institutionalism studies show how resources and wants are created through social processes and advance the struggle for a better world through an ongoing dialogue about economic rights. This collection contains a number of new and important contributions from young institutionalists, including the first serious treatment of the origins and contributions of the Texas School of institutionalism. It also contains thorough discussions of the research agenda for institutional economics and an extensive dialogue between institutionalism and Marxism.The book opens with an explanation of the central concepts of radical institutionalism, a history of the seminal Texas School of Economics, and a discussion of the methodology of radical institutionalism. Other contributors critique institutionalism as a radical system of inquiry, extend institutionalism beyond its original American foundation, discuss the contemporary critical literature, and outline the usefulness of a continued dialogue between radical institutionalism and Marxism. This provocative collection will interest scholars of contemporary economic theory. It could also be used as a supplementary reader in courses on the history of economic thought and political economy.

With the continuing consolidation of corporate holdings through wave after wave of mergers and acquisitions, the ubiquitous power of major corporations is of increasing concern from both a practical and a theoretical standpoint. In this study Dugger approaches corporate power as an institutional phenomenon. Through his sharply focused analysis, he traces the development of U.S. corporate hegemony and explores the impact of the big corporation's social dominance in every aspect of contemporary life.The author begins with an examination of the nature of the corporate behemoth, its values and behavior, inner contradictions, drive for economic power, and its unrestricted control of the global market economy. He looks at the underlying dynamics of the corporation's drive for control and the various processes through which its values, meanings, and motives are imposed. These processes include coercion, contamination, subordination, emulation, and mystification. Dugger shows how the careerism corporations demand systematically draws energy and commitment away from family, community, and other spheres of life, thus corroding their meaning and value. He studies the impact of corporate power on the family, schools and colleges, unions, churches, communities, the state, and the media, and demonstrates how each of the power mechanisms is used to devalue and hollow out these institutions. Dugger argues that the social vacuum this creates is being filled by the big corporations. Unique in its institutional approach to the rise and spread of corporate power, Corporate Hegemony makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the crisis of pluralism in the West.

Radical institutionalism—a processual paradigm focused on changing the direction of cultural evolution and the function of social provisioning in order to promote the full participation of all—defines inequality as evolving from class exploitation, gender domination, race discrimination, and national predation. Radical institutionalism states that inequality is not determined by genetic differences between groups, innate differences between sexes, or class differences. It is believed that mainstream thinking in economics and related studies is not broad enough to capture the complexity of this social pathology.

Evolution Theory in the Social Sciences is the first collection of its kind to give a coherent historical account of the evolution of evolutionary thought and includes the most innovative and insightful works on the subject, from its very beginnings through to contemporary debates. The selections begin in the nineteenth century with Darwin and Malthus and then follows the variegated story of social evolutionary thought through to the beginning of the 21st Century, including key works by Marx, Veblen and Kropotkin as well as other less well known contributions.

David Hamilton is a leader in the American institutionalist school of heterodox economics that emerged after WWII. This volume includes 25 articles written by Hamilton over a period of nearly half a century. In these articles he examines the philosophical foundations and practical problems of economics. The result of this is a unique institutionalist view of how economies evolve and how economics itself has evolved with them. Hamilton applies insight gained from his study of culture to send the message that human actions situated in culture determine our economic situation. David Hamilton has advanced heterodox economics by replacing intellectual concepts from orthodox economics that hinder us with concepts that help us. In particular, Hamilton has helped replace equilibrium with evolution, make-believe with reality, ideological distortion of government with practical use of government, the economy as a product of natural law with the economy as a product of human law and, last, he has helped us replace the entrepreneur as a hero with the entrepreneur as a real person. These articles provide an alternative to the self-adjusting market. They provide an explanation of how the interaction of cultural patterns and technology determine the evolutionary path of the economic development of a nation. This is not a simple materialist depiction of economic history as some Marxists have advocated, instead Hamilton treats technology and culture as endogenous forces, embedded and inseparable from each other and therefore, economic development. This volume will be of most interest and value to professional economists and graduate students who are looking for an in-depth explanation of the origins and significance of institutional economics.

Most principles of economics texts are predicated narrowly on the concept of scarcity as a fundamental force, but that is only one aspect of economics. This supplemental text for basic and intermediate level undergraduates provides a serious discussion of the concept of abundance - what it means, how we can move toward it, and what keeps us from doing so. The authors first outline the development of the concept of abundance and its meaning with discussions of the roles of population, resources, and the environment. Then they consider why abundance escapes us, focusing on the detrimental roles of four predatory behaviors - classism, nationalism, sexism, and racism. As a remedy, they propose a policy of universal employment as a replacement for full employment, and explore the effects of pushing the unemployment rate down to absolute zero.

Most principles of economics texts are predicated narrowly on the concept of scarcity as a fundamental force, but that is only one aspect of economics. This supplemental text for basic and intermediate level undergraduates provides a serious discussion of the concept of abundance - what it means, how we can move toward it, and what keeps us from doing so. The authors first outline the development of the concept of abundance and its meaning with discussions of the roles of population, resources, and the environment. Then they consider why abundance escapes us, focusing on the detrimental roles of four predatory behaviors - classism, nationalism, sexism, and racism. As a remedy, they propose a policy of universal employment as a replacement for full employment, and explore the effects of pushing the unemployment rate down to absolute zero.

David Hamilton is a leader in the American institutionalist school of heterodox economics that emerged after WWII. This volume includes 25 articles written by Hamilton over a period of nearly half a century. In these articles he examines the philosophical foundations and practical problems of economics. The result of this is a unique institutionalist view of how economies evolve and how economics itself has evolved with them. Hamilton applies insight gained from his study of culture to send the message that human actions situated in culture determine our economic situation. David Hamilton has advanced heterodox economics by replacing intellectual concepts from orthodox economics that hinder us with concepts that help us. In particular, Hamilton has helped replace equilibrium with evolution, make-believe with reality, ideological distortion of government with practical use of government, the economy as a product of natural law with the economy as a product of human law and, last, he has helped us replace the entrepreneur as a hero with the entrepreneur as a real person. These articles provide an alternative to the self-adjusting market. They provide an explanation of how the interaction of cultural patterns and technology determine the evolutionary path of the economic development of a nation. This is not a simple materialist depiction of economic history as some Marxists have advocated, instead Hamilton treats technology and culture as endogenous forces, embedded and inseparable from each other and therefore, economic development. This volume will be of most interest and value to professional economists and graduate students who are looking for an in-depth explanation of the origins and significance of institutional economics.