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On the Idea of the Moral Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

William James Booth
William James Booth
Affiliation:
McGill University
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Abstract

The moral economic school, which has flourished among anthropologists, economic historians, and classicists, has received only limited attention from political scientists. This is perplexing, since at its core is to be found an intersection of debates over rational choice theory, the character of modern and premarket societies, and the normative standing of the market—in other words, over issues of formidable importance to our discipline. I seek to correct that neglect by mapping out and critically analyzing the moral economists' conception of modernity, their critique of the economic approach to human behavior and institutions, and their attempt to formulate an Aristotelian theory of the economy. These projects, though flawed, together are more than rich enough to provide fertile ground for political scientists and philosophers. I conclude with a discussion of the moral economists' effort to develop a normative theory of the economy together with a related critique of the market.

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American Political Science Review , Volume 88 , Issue 3 , September 1994 , pp. 653 - 667
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Copyright © American Political Science Association 1994

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