Suchergebnisse

The great challenge for neoclassical paradigms is whether its methodological individualism is capable of coming to grips with the collective or social nature of information. Arrow's subtle observation regarding the increasing returns to communication is one of those peculiarities which contradicts the concept of scarcity of information. Bounded rationality is another example. While remaining faithful to methodological individualism of standard economic theory, Arrow describes information as a specific non-ordinary commodity, revealing the limits of imperfections of market and entering into the general category of externalities. He sets forth some fundamental principles of the economics of information and the new microeconomics by focusing on issues such as information gathering, communication efficiency, and transmission costs in deciding among forms of economic organization. In our critical review of Arrow's theory of information, we endeavor to show that despite its great achievements, this theory does not capture the tacit, institutionalized, unexpected, and non-rational dimensions of knowledge. The organizational or corporate culture cannot be derived from market failure. It is the direct outcome of internal organization of the firm and other social networks, and thus closely related to learned and transmitted knowledge in a group context.

The Social Construction of a Perfect Market.
The computerized market in Fontaines-en-Sologne, which distributes part of the region's high-quality strawberry crop, is equippedwith advanced technology designed to ensure that market trading takes place in conditions very close to those which correspond to realization of the model of pure, perfect competition described in economic theory. Study of the social conditions of the creation and functioning of this market shows, however, that this perfect correspondence with theory is the pure product of an economic and social construction performed by a certain number of agents with convergent interests, and that it is the economic theory itself which served as a direct frame of reference in the setting-up of each detail of this market, particularly in the definition of the space and the regulations which obtain within it.

Ernest Gellner, La théorie de l'Histoire : Est et Ouest.
Cet essai tente de dégager la nature des divergences existant entre la vision occidentale et la vision marxiste soviétique de l'histoire. Je pense qu'une théorie occidentale de l'histoire est en train de se cristalliser et qu'elle est matérialiste dans sa typologie de base mais pas dans sa théorie. Elle n'a pas de théorie « consensuelle », mais sa Fragestellung est matérialiste bien qu'elle ne préjuge pas de la nature de la réponse qui doit être proposée. Mais je ne prétends pas que ce point de vue est partagé, même tacitement, par la majorité des chercheurs en sciences sociales et des historiens occidentaux. Beaucoup professent un idéalisme sémantique, en grande partie anti-théorique, du genre que j'ai rapidement esquissé. Un nombre encore plus grand d'entre eux, surtout parmi les historiens, sont non-théoriques ou anti-théoriques et sont enclins à considérer toute recherche d'une théorie générale de l'histoire comme contraire aux usages de la profession. De nombreux philosophes partent aussi de l'hypothèse que le contexte historique comme la théorie n'ont rien à voir avec leurs propres recherches.

Com o reconhecimento inquestionável da falência das tentativas de Transição do capitalismo ao socialismo representadas pelo socialismo soviético e pela socialdemocracia européia, para muitos autores foi também definitivamente enterrada a possibilidade de superação do capitalismo. Neste artigo, veremos que não foi assim para outros. É nosso objetivo apresentar alguns elementos fundamentais sobre o significado atual da Transição tanto do ponto de vista da Teoria Democrática, como daTeoria Marxista. A análise aqui desenvolvida fundamenta-se, principalmente, na última obra de István Mészáros – Beyond Capital. Towards a Theory of Transition. ; The definitive death of the attempted Transitions from capitalism to socialismrepresented by Soviet socialism and European social-democracy also brought,for many authors, the burial of any possibility of going beyond capitalism. Inthis article, we will see that this is not the case for other authors. Our objectiveis to present some fundamental aspects of the current meaning of theTransition, from the point of view of Democratic Theory, as well as MarxistTheory. This analysis is based principally on the most recent work by IstvánMészáros, Beyond Capital. Towards a Theory of Transition.

Jurisprudence and sociology have different tasks. Jurisprudence describes the legal System from within and suggests how to interprete and apply legal norms. Sociology describes the legal System from the outside. To what extent an external description can touch upon the internal structure and internal problems depends upon its conceptual instruments. The present paper proposes to use the theory of self-referential autopoietic Systems to reconstruct the self-description of legal Systems, particularly its concept of norms, its ways of legal reasoning and its legal doctrine.

The hypothesis that rational choice theory cannot account for individual voting behavior, unless the act of voting is taken as asserting an individual identification with some collective entity, is examined through an analysis of two surveys of voters (N = 1,000) in the French-speaking Walloon region of Belgium. Strengths of associations between six categories of collective identity (as European, Belgian, francophone, Walloon, subregional, & individual) & four categories of voting pattern by party (Ecological, Socialist, Christian Socialist, & Liberal) are examined in a loglinear analysis. Results show that all but two indicators of collective identity (European & francophone) are significant predictors of voting behavior by party. Ecological Party voters show the weakest collective identity, & robust associations are present between: Belgian identity & Liberal Party; Walloon & subregional identities & Socialist Party; & individualist identity & Christian Socialist Party. Some bipolar effects are also in evidence. 6 Tables. A. Levine

The social destination of the nomenklatura.
When communism entered upon its decline in Central and Eastern Europe, J. Sta- niszkis in Poland and E. Hankiss in Hungary offered the following theory about the change of power : a section of the communist élite, realising that the development of soviet-type socialism was a threat to its authority and its social standing, took steps to transform its political role and its administrative power into economic capital. A second theory - viz. « nothing has changed » - in one sense rounds off the first, while a third - « the nomenklatura as victim of the revolution » - offers a contradictory view.
The first aim of this article is to examine the position at present held by the former members of the nomenklatura, and so to discover the main routes that they have travelled in the passage from their 1988 functions to those of 1993. In this way, it should be possible to establish a general outline of the mobility of the communist nomenklatura inside post-communist Europe. The article's second purpose is to compare the fate of the nomenklatura in three former communist countries now in transition. Given the diversity in method, and pace of change to the system in Poland, Hungary and Russia, one might have expected sizeable variations in what ultimately became of the nomenklatura. As we shall see, this is not really the case.