Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

Maximum Reach 93Some forms of monopoly compel, as do many relations betweenemployer and employee. But the distinctive marketsystemmethod of inducing a response—of achieving coordination—isto offer a benefit in return for a voluntaryresponse.The frequent need for compulsion limits market domainmore than is immediately apparent. Market activity,we know, requires a foundation in custom and law thatmarket activity itself cannot provide. It requires at least acompulsory protection of both liberty and rights to assetswithout which no one can offer performances and objects inexchange. Similarly, other rules derived from both customand law—rules of contract or fair trade, for example—cannotthemselves be made effective by market interactionsbut instead require compulsion. International trade also requiresspecial legal foundations through agreement amongstates, ranging from the 1944 agreements of Bretton Woodsto emerging international rules on capital movements. Andthe state itself cannot be created by market relations—wecannot create a government simply by buying one. Amongother reasons, the “consent of the governed” is never universal;some citizens have to be compelled.What About Collective Pursuits?To an on-off control switch, scarcity, and voluntarism,should we add a fourth defining element of market-systemdomain—that the market system organizes only individualisticventures? Critics often say that market systems permitparticipants to pursue only individualistic ends, notcollective projects. We can all selfishly pursue a largerapartment or new clothes for our children, but we cannotpursue collective goals like crime reduction or environ-