The Value‐based Islamic Economic System and Other Optimal Economic Systems: A Critical Comparative Analysis

Abstract

It is noted that the optimal systems of radical free enterprise and radical socialism are extremes of intellectualising science. Each excludes the thought of the other. Since both theories are logically consistent, each has a compelling intellectual support base. However, both theories are flawed insofar as they make the economic reality an independent functioning entity isolated from the concepts of interdependence and broader individual and social entities. Each simplifies reality – one defines all reality in the individual while the other defines all reality in the society. The simplicity of the intellectual framework of both is the flaw which arises from using Occam′s Razor too freely in simplifying complexity. It is argued that a system that explicitly incorporates and recognises individual freedom and societal values is preferable to all other systems that are assumed to be “value free”. This could be one explanation for the emergence of the Islamic system in different corners of the world.

Citation

Reilly, B.J. and Zangeneh, H. (1990), "The Value‐based Islamic Economic System and Other Optimal Economic Systems: A Critical Comparative Analysis", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 17 No. 11, pp. 21-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068299010138280