Pusey, Michael --- "Economic Rationalism, Human Rights and Civil Society" [1998] AUJlHRights 9; (1998) 4(2) Australian Journal of Human Rights 131
[1] School of Sociology, University of New South Wales. What follows is a revised version of a paper given at the Xlll World Congress of Sociology at Bielefeld, Germany, in July 1994 and which later appeared in (1996) 44, Thesis Eleven, under the title "Economic Rationalism and the Contest for Civil Society", pp 69-87.
[2] Barbalet J M Emotion, Social Theory, and Social Structure (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1998) p 127.
[3] See "Australia's Economic Emperor has no Clothes", Sydney Morning Herald, 17 October, 1991. I was forced to produce these two definitions in the national debate that ensued from Pusey M Economic Rationalism in Canberra: A Nation-Building State Changes its Mind, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991). To my enormous surprise most of my opponents accepted these definitions of their own positions.
[4] Including public choice theorists, management consultants, and accountants.
[5] I make no claim here for any corresponding "evolution" in our ideas of the social.
[6] Pincus J "Market Failure and Government Failure", in King S and Lloyd P (eds) Economic Rationalism: Dead End or Way Forward, (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1993) pp 261-277. I rely on Pincus heavily in this paragraph and have reconstructed his concepts to suit my purpose here.
[7] Sen A On Ethics and Economics (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1987) p 31.
[8] See Pusey, op cit.
[9] One could even provide a useful operational definition of civil society as anything that appears to the pure economists as frustration!
[10] This very helpful definition is the one used by "The Reshaping Australian Institutions: Towards and Beyond 2001" project of the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University, Canberra.
[11] Sen A The Standard of Living, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1987).
[12] Lane R "Markets and the Satisfaction of Human Wants", (1979) 12 Journal of Economic Issues, pp 799-827.
[13] These are the results of the National Social Science Survey reported by Headey B "The Life Satisfactions and Priorities of Australians", ch 11, in Kelley J and Bean C (eds) Australian Attitudes, (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1988).
[14] Lane R The Market Experience, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991) p 12.
[15] Zelizer V The Social Meaning of Money (Basic Books, New York, 1994).
[16] Robbins L C An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science (Macmillan, London, 1935) pp 155-6.
[17] Brennan G and Lomasky L Democracy and Decision: The Pure Theory of Electoral Choice (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993) p 132.
[18] Offe C Disorganised Capitalism: Contemporary Transformations of Work and Politics (Polity Press, Cambridge, 1985) pp 56-7.
[19] Lane R The Market Experience, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991) p 6.
[20] The more moderate economists have always held this to be true and will, under pressure, say it publicly.
[21] OECD Economic Surveys, Australia 1989-1990, (OECD, Paris) ch 3.
[22] Elster J (ed) Rational Choice, (New York University Press, New York, 1986), introduction.
[23] The public choice "amendment" to welfare economics is explained clearly, by two long-time associates of J Buchanan, namely Brennan and Lomasky, in their excellent Democracy & Decision: The Pure Theory of Electoral Preference, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993).
[24] Buchanan J "Contractarian Political Economy and Constitutional Interpretation", (1988) 78, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings.
[25] Buchanan J "Economics in the Post-Socialist Century" (1991) 101Economic Journal, pp 15-21.
[26] von Mises L Epistemological Problems, p 61 quoted by Lane R The Market Experience, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991), p 6.
[27] Friedman M Capitalism and Freedom, (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1962) p 13.
[28] This relies on some paraphrasing of arguments made by Trebilcock M The Limits of the Freedom of Contract, (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1993) p 10.
[29] Dahlman C J "The Problem of `Externality" (1962) 37 Economica, quoted by Trebilcock, op cit, p 60.
[30] Michael Sandel as quoted by Honneth A "The Limits of Liberalism: On the Political-Ethical Discussion on Communitarianism)" (1991) 28 Thesis Eleven, pp 19-34; see also Sandel M (ed), Liberalism and its Critics, (New York University Press, New York, 1984).
[31] Offe, op cit p 56.
[32] Bellah R et al Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, (Harper & Row, California, 1985).
[33] Etzioni A The Spirit of Community: Rights, Responsibilities, and the Communitarian Agenda, (Crown, New York, 1993) p 266.
[34] Rawls J A Theory of Justice (The Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, 1971).
[35] Buchanan J Liberty, Market and State: Political Economy in the 1980s (Harvester Press, Sussex, 1986) p 20-1.
[36] J F Lyotard The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, (Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1984) p 62.
[37] McDonald K "Gobalisation, Multiculturalism and Rethinking the Social" (1994) 30 The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, pp 239-247.
[38] Lyotard, op cit p 62.
[39] Luhmann N The Differentiation of Society, (Columbia University Press, New York, 1992)p 221.
[40] Lyotard, op cit p 66.
[41] McCarthy T Ideals and Illusions: On Reconstruction and Deconstruction in Contemporary Critical Theory (MIT Press,Cambridge, 1993) p 157.
[42] Luhmann, op cit p 221.
[43] Luhmann, as quoted here by Habermas J Theory of Communicative Action, Vol 2 (Beacon Press, Boston, 1987) p 63.
[44] Luhmann as quoted by Habermas, op cit, p 263.
[45] See Pusey, op cit, chapters 5 & 6.
[46] Waters M "Globalisation and the Social Construction of Human Rights" Address to the Australian Sociological Association, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, December 1994.