Charles Edward Lindblom

A nice collection of papers by Charles Lindblom, ranging from 1955 to 1984. I liked the chapter from 1955 which portrayed bargaining as a distinctive path to reach social objectives, beside the more familiar paths of the price system and authoritative control. I do wonder if the author relinquished this idea later in his career, because I don't recall it resurfacing in any of his later works. The author is generally at his best when writing about the use of knowledge in society, and the chapters which discuss social science were in my opinion the most interesting ones in this regard.… (mehr)

This thoughtful analysis of global politics must have been a good read in 1977 when it was published, but it is badly outdated now. The author presents a set of loose theories which contrast market-oriented polyarchies to plan-oriented communist systems. Then he discusses politics in China, the USSR, Yugoslavia, western European countries and the USA. But he is not writing political history, and his theories are not sufficiently general to be of timeless interest. In other words this book contains too few details to be an informative political history of the 1970’s, and its theories are much too specific to their own time to be worth reading 40 years later. I would recommend any other book by this author before this one.… (mehr)

This is the clearest and most balanced theoretical overview of markets that I've read. The author points out that markets should not be seen as purely economic instruments but as a natural form of social interaction and coordination. He emphasizes the social benefits that are achieved through markets and writes that a society without any market system at all is not worth considering (p.276). But this is not a shortsighted attack against government interference. In fact it's quite the opposite. The author explains at some length how all markets are maintained by governments and how the market system itself is an administrative instrument of the state (p.258). He also discusses a number of claims for and against markets: their efficiency or inefficiency, their influence on freedom, culture, democracy and so on. He makes no final polemical conclusion as to the "proper" scope of markets, but if you intend to make one yourself you need to read this book first.… (mehr)