Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

254 Thinking About Choicesminate the market system on some attributes so far ignoredor passed over too lightly.Drawing on earlier chapters, we can deal with a numberof specific alternatives quickly. Hypothetically, at least,every market society can choose a market system with verylittle, more, or a great deal more state control of• spillovers• monopoly in its many forms• corporate powers other than monopoly, including politicalpowers• managerial authority within the enterprise• entrepreneurial motivation• investment• distribution of income and wealthThe alternatives are not limited to small differences.They range from the intimacy between state and corporationin Japan in the 1960s to the continuing turbulent statecorporaterelations of the United States. And within anyone national system, on each of these variables wide choiceis open and consequential. How large nations like China,India, Russia, and the United States choose to deal withspillovers may be pivotal for the whole world.Hypothetically, I said, a society can choose. Whether inactual fact it can depends on how well the state, which isthe main lever for working on the market system, can beharnessed either by a ruling elite or, in a democracy, by citizens.The odds are not encouraging, for the state itself isdeeply flawed. Among other obstructions stands the corporation.In its role in government it is itself a major barrier toa better market system.Among the aspects of the market system that have givenrise to choices on degree and character of state control, to-