Markets and Power: The 21st Century Command Economy

Description

Schutz, a Rollins College economics professor, challenges "the denial of power as a useful or meaningful concept by . . . those in the mainstream of the field of economics." Because the free-market economic model envisions "economic man" operating within "perfect markets," notions of power are largely irrelevant. Schutz analyzes the economic operation of power in chapters that consider two forms of business power (monopoly, and networks and finance), employer power, and purchasing power. "The effect of the avoidance of the subject of power in mainstream economics," Schutz argues, "has been to impede the development of means of countering the oppressive exercise of power in capitalist systems today." His final chapter suggests changes--in politics, business, labor law, and income inequality--that would democratize the economy.