Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

14 Market System Ascendantnate human behavior or activity with a range and a precisionbeyond that of any other system, institution, or socialprocess. But it is a harsh and often cruel coordinator. It isboth an ally and enemy of personal freedom—ally becauseit opens up a range of choice for each participant, but enemybecause it closes off some major choices that a free peoplecould otherwise make. It destroys many mammoth historicalinequalities and then introduces inequalities of its own.It achieves extraordinary efficiency because it permits participantsto make precise and calculated choices. But it isgrossly inefficient because of the choices it has closed off.Historically, it has supported democracy—there are no democraticnation-states except in market societies—but ithas sabotaged important democratic features of ostensiblydemocratic states. It is also a rival to democracy becauseboth market system and democracy allow people to exercisepopular or mass control over elites in government andbusiness. Its scope is much broader than often conceived tobe; it can do more things than most people think it can. Yet,paradoxically, it does not operate in some arenas everywhereidentified with it. We shall also find grounds for believingthat no market system has yet been well supportedby the state.Do I have a central or overarching thesis in this book? Yes, ifyou want one; no, if you don’t. Some common theses arenot mine. I do not try to convince you that you should, takingeverything into account, admire or deplore the marketsystem. Nor do I suggest that the historical argument on themarket system has come to an end with a victory for themarket system. My thesis is that there are great unsettledissues about a place for the market system in the future ofany society.