Sociology and the Demystification of the Modern World (RLE Social Theory) by John Rex

Author:John Rex [Rex, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138996373
Google: SbZAjwEACAAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-12-18T05:00:58+00:00

10

The second world: central economic planning and political mobilisation

We have seen how the capitalist world, despite the prevalence of market relations, at every level, between man and man, does none the less develop its own characteristic corporate and group structures. Most notably, industry and commerce is conducted by formal corporate organisations and, cross-cutting this, there is a conflict between organised capital and organised labour as well as between classes. The one point, however, to which corporate action does not fully extend is that of the relation between corporations, and between corporations and the individuals with whom they deal. Here we still find market relations, even through the horizontal and vertical integrations of industry, and the command exercised by corporations over consumers, through advertising, means that they are somewhat limited here too. The characteristic motive force of this whole system is the profit seeking of those who exercise command over the major corporations, although the ideology which is propagated by the powerful, and which has a certain rationale, is that the market principle operates to ensure an efficient allocation of resources, both in terms of formal and economic rationality, and in terms of substantive and technical rationality.

The tensions within such a system, and the sense of suffering and lack of self-fulfilment on the part of those who take, rather than give, orders, inevitably lead to the emergence of a Utopian belief that a situation is possible in which men do not suffer alienation, even though large-scale industry continues. This situation is seen as depending upon the overthrow of the power of the entrepreneurial class and the elimination of the profit motive, and their replacement by a planning agency or planning agencies directed by ‘the people’ and working to meet human needs rather than making profit. Such is the goal of all socialist and anarchist movements, which are an inevitable part of the structure of capitalist societies.

Separately from this, another type of structural alteration for, or development of, Western capitalism might be envisaged. This is that the logic of the corporate system of social organisation within industrial and commercial firms should be extended to the whole society. Thus, instead of the market principle being relied upon as the main means of attaining a substantively rational allocation of resources, and meeting of needs through formally rational or rationally calculating behaviour, a single bureaucratic organisation could be set up which could set for itself goals of a substantive kind and, treating the separate corporations as its own subordinate agencies, direct them all to work in accordance with a rationally conceived plan. If the market principle was used at all, it could then be used in a subordinate way and allowed to operate only in so far as it could be shown to achieve a substantively rational outcome. Under such a system there need be no guarantee that the goals set would necessarily be for the benefit of the greatest happiness of the greatest number, and there would be an open question as to how

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.