Markets as a system of social contracts

Abstract

Examines critically traditional economic paradigms as well as those given by Hayek and Buchanan on markets with constitutional contracts in order to contrast them with yet another view of market ‐ that endogeneity of various political and economic processes creates a global system of interlinkages among and between policy variables and socio‐economic variables. By invoking the methodology and epistemology of such a system develops a theory of globally interactive market processes. In such a globally interactive system, markets are seen to be induced by and to regenerate circularly endogenous preferences. Knowledge induction becomes epistemologically critical in such an evolutionary and interactive order. Hence, these globally knowledge‐induced interlinkages generated by policy‐market interactions are made to establish and explain what is termed here as a system of social contracts.

Citation

Alam Choudhury, M. (1996), "Markets as a system of social contracts", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 17-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068299610108854