Charles K. Wilber

The Methodological Basis of Institutional Economics: Pattern Model, Storytelling, and Holism

What can be said about the truth value of explanations found in institutional economics? Consideration of the question requires a review of a number of other issues. To discuss the truth value of propositions requires a consideration of models of explanation. Since institutionalisms mode of explanation has developed, at least in part, in reaction to standard economics, the models of explanation underlying both standard and institutional economics must be analyzed and compared. This essay seeks to discover the model of explanation implicit in insti-

Religious values and social limits to development

Abstract The reassessment of the experience of development calls for a reevaluation of the relationship between development and religion. While the traditional view which concentrated on the entrepreneur has continued importance, changes in the context of development require new thought on the subject. A view which sees religion as a major factor in the moral base of the society and consequently as a social limit on development is likely to provide a more fruitful view of how religion and development intertwine. It suggests that there are four areas of mutual influence: on the character development of actors in development efforts; as a resistant force to the dominant definitions of development; as a positive impulse toward a well-founded definition and process of development; and finally as an institutional transnational actor in matters of development. The papers in this volume deal with many facets of these questions, as noted in the present paper.

Socialism and development: Editors' introduction

Abstract There is now sufficient socialist development experience that efforts to learn from its variety can be very fruitful. To some degree all such experience must be interpreted in comparison with the dominant models of socialism, the Soviet Union and China. This paper has drawn upon those countries, and other socialist countries to suggest a set of central questions which will appear in any socialist development pattern. The papers which follow, and which have been introduced in the course of this paper, provide much greater detail and specificity on the questions. The first large grouping of papers examines specific country experience in order to provide an empirical base for dealing with ‘socialist’ countries. A second group of papers examines in depth the questions of strategy and of organization. Finally, the ‘political’ side of political economic analysis is highlighted in the three papers which deal with the transition to socialism, human rights, and womens emancipation.

The methodological basis of Hirschman's development economics: Pattern model vs general laws

Abstract This paper attempts to understand the methodological foundations of Albert Hirschmans work in development economics. His work clearly differs from the formal and econometric approach of standard economics. Because of this Hirschman is often dismissed as a pamphleteer. This paper argues that Hirschmans work can be understood as an example of what philosophers of social science call holistic pattern modeling.

Ethics and Social Economics: ASE Presidential Address, January 2004, San Diego, California

In this talk I pull together my past work on the role of ethics in economic theory. In doing so I note that mainstream economic theory is permeated with an ethical viewpoint and that any alternative approach, including social economics, necessarily must be so also. I outline the alternative theories of normative ethics and illustrate how they impact the doing of economics and the setting of economic policies. But this is just a beginning. A major challenge for social economists is to carry forward the task of incorporating a richer ethics into the practice of economics.

Ethics, human behavior and the methodology of social economics

Social economists differ among themselves but are united in rejecting the rational actor model. They insist that individuals are more than economic actors; they arepersons with ethical values who live in community. That agreement over fundamentals leads social economists to embrace a methodological approach that differs substantially from the mainstream of economics. They (sometimes explicitly but usually implicitly), engage in a special form of storytelling known in the philosophy of social science as pattern modeling. Instead of using a pre-existing theoretical framework, such as rational choice theory, to logically construct a story, this type of story is constructed empirically from the bottom up through the use of case studies. The article concludes with a specific consideration of Albert Hirschmans methodology to illustrate the storytelling approach of a first rate and well-recognized social economist.

CONSUMPTION‐John Paul II, Catholic social thought and the ethics of consumption

In this essay, the author identifies three reasons why consumption, or more precisely excessive consumption, is emphasized in Catholic social thought including most recently John Paul II’s 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus: the moral conflict between the abundance enjoyed by the few and the poverty endured by the many; the threat to the environment from excessive consumption; and the human degradation from a cultural environment wherein having more is valued above being more. In his essay, Wilber offers a personalist alternative to the neo‐classical position that satisfying individual preferences, as expressed in the market, is the only measure of economic welfare.

Strategies of Development: A Survey

The 1950–1980 period witnessed economic development unprecedented for its rapidity and for its extension to virtually all of the peoples of the world.1 There was rapid growth in per capita gross national product (GNP), growth in international trade, increased investment, and increased industrialization. More importantly, there was significant improvement in literacy, life expectancy, infant mortality, access to education, health services, and potable water.

Individuals, Norms, and Ethical Values

Why do people behave the way they do? Why do they buy this product or service and not a different one? Why does one person work two jobs, another person one full-time job, another part-time, and yet another not work outside the home? Why does someone buy a huge house with many more bedrooms than family members? Why does someone cheat on his or her taxes, and someone else not do so? Why does a used car dealer sell a car which he or she knows to be a lemon and someone else not do so? Why does one person vote in an election and another person not do so? Why do some people, and not others, volunteer to build houses for the homeless?

Social Interactions and Ethical Values

We argued in the previous chapter that individuals have ethical values which influence how they behave. This chapter examines the implications of that behavior for societal outcomes. The outcomes, obviously, depend on how individuals interact with each other. Therefore the main task of this chapter is to examine how the interaction between individuals results in social outcomes, and what role ethical values have in the nature of these outcomes.