Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

8 Market System Ascendantand social coordination? Everyone can see that the state accomplishessome coordination of the whole national society,but it is harder to see that the market system also doesso—in fact organizes both nation and globe. But is it nottrue that people are either coordinated by the state or areleft to do as they wish, all going their own way, as in themarket? That is a colossal misperception. In market systemspeople do not go their own way; they are tied togetherand turned this way or that through market interactions. Ifthey were in fact left to go their own way they would notachieve the prodigious feats of production that characterizemarket systems. That market participants see themselvesas making free and voluntary choices does not deny thatthey are controlled by purchases and sales.The market system is not, however, Adam Smith’s laissez-faire,not a market system tied to a minimal state. Inour time it is a governed market system, heavily burdenedor ornamented with what old-fashioned free marketers decryas “interferences.” In these systems, the state is thelargest buyer: it has a long shopping list, including a militaryforce, highways, and the services of police officers andbureaucrats. It is a mammoth supplier as well, although inproviding many of its services—elementary education, asan example—it usually gives away the “product” ratherthan sells it. Rather than let supply and demand set prices,it often does so itself: keeping agricultural prices high to aidfarmers, or holding agricultural prices down to curb distressamong the urban poor. It forbids some kinds of sales: mostnations now prohibit slavery. It taxes, not simply to raiserevenue but to curb some industries, like tobacco. One wayor another it subsidizes most industries, almost all of whichhold their hands out. It is a gigantic borrower and a frequentlender. It engages in sales promotion abroad to enlarge over-