Lindblom - The Market System - Afghan Journalists' Committee

Enterprise and Corporation 65call mass. In doing so I should like to strip the words of theirfrequent nuances—as when “elite” implies aristocratic superiorityor sophistication in taste. Nor are elites necessarilyconspiratorial and exploitative, even if they often are;nor are masses necessarily ignorant and unruly, even if theyoften are.An old and continuing social problem is how to maintainmass control over elites. By democratic standards,mass or popular political control through the ballot is alwaysa partial failure. Failures in control of market elitesseem roughly parallel to failures in control of governmentalelites. That is what monopoly amounts to. The word denotesmany of the familiar ways that market elites evade orweaken mass control over them. Advertising is of courseone, including misrepresentation of product. Driving competitorsout of business is another. With patents, governmentsbestow monopoly powers on market elites. Governmentsalso come to their aid with import quotas, tariffs,licensing laws, and other inventive restrictions on the rangeof competition. All of these practices limit the power of acustomer, which he can exercise only if he can refuse tobuy.In politics, popular control over elites is a general requirementfor democracy and often defines democracy. Yetit calls for at least occasional exceptions. Some issues undersome circumstances, most of us believe, are better left inthe hands of the government elites. Similarly, monopolyhas its place. Monopoly prices, as in the pharmaceutical industry,which rests on patents, provide funds for researchand innovation. Whether patents offer more protection andincome than is desirable for that purpose is, however, muchdisputed.Monopoly is not, however, a broad enough concept to