IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revaec/v31y2018i2d10.1007_s11138-017-0385-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trade, Power, and Political Economy: Reason vs. Ideology in Edward Stringham’s Private Governance

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Wagner

    (George Mason University)

Abstract

In Private Governance: Creating Order in Economic and Social Life, Edward Stringham explains that private ordering is sufficient to secure full exploitation of gains from trade within a society. After describing the logic of Stringham’s claim on behalf of private ordering, the remainder of this essay examines an enigma that Stringham’s argument entails: private ordering is sufficient for social coordination and yet public ordering is ubiquitous. The exploitation of gains from trade might offer a useful ideology, but this provides but an incomplete basis for a theory of society. In this respect, societies are rife with antagonism and envy, though these often manifest themselves ideologically as claims about justice and fairness. Politics goes where the money is; private ordering reveals targets that public ordering subsequently exploits. The challenge for political economy is to integrate the autonomy of economizing action with the autonomy of political action, for these dual autonomies provide the crucible out of which emerges the material of political economy. Stringham has deepened our appreciation of what private governance can accomplish, but much unfinished analytical work confronts theorists of political economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Wagner, 2018. "Trade, Power, and Political Economy: Reason vs. Ideology in Edward Stringham’s Private Governance," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 31(2), pages 245-255, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:31:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s11138-017-0385-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-017-0385-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11138-017-0385-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11138-017-0385-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marta Podemska-Mikluch & Richard Wagner, 2013. "Dyads, triads, and the theory of exchange: Between liberty and coercion," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 26(2), pages 171-182, June.
    2. Watts, Ross L & Zimmerman, Jerold L, 1983. "Agency Problems, Auditing, and the Theory of the Firm: Some Evidence," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(3), pages 613-633, October.
    3. Meg Patrick & Richard Wagner, 2015. "From mixed economy to entangled political economy: a Paretian social-theoretic orientation," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 103-116, July.
    4. Richard E. Wagner, 2016. "Politics as a Peculiar Business," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16989.
    5. Richard E. Wagner, 2015. "Welfare Economics and Second-Best Theory: Filling Imaginary Economic Boxes," Cato Journal, Cato Journal, Cato Institute, vol. 35(1), pages 133-146, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paul Dragos Aligica & Richard E. Wagner, 2020. "Economic coordination in environments with incomplete pricing," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(3), pages 315-329, September.
    2. Marta Podemska-Mikluch, 2021. "Taxonomy of Entrepreneurship – A Means-Oriented Approach," Studies in Public Choice, in: David J. Hebert & Diana W. Thomas (ed.), Emergence, Entanglement, and Political Economy, pages 63-72, Springer.
    3. Meg Patrick Tuszynski, 2021. "Entanglement and Perverse Spontaneous Orders," Studies in Public Choice, in: David J. Hebert & Diana W. Thomas (ed.), Emergence, Entanglement, and Political Economy, pages 87-101, Springer.
    4. Mikayla Novak, 2024. "Coercive advantage," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 37(4), pages 457-476, December.
    5. Jonathan W. Plante, 2022. "Richard E. Wagner, Macroeconomics as Systems Theory: Transcending the Micro-Macro Dichotomy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. Xiii +313 pages. 119.99 USD (hardback)," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 561-566, December.
    6. Wagner, Richard E., 2019. "Governance within a system of entangled political economy," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-1.
    7. Lamar Pierce & Jason Snyder, 2015. "Unethical Demand and Employee Turnover," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(4), pages 853-869, November.
    8. Abdullah, Azrul Bin, 2018. "Company-specific characteristics and the choice of hedge accounting for derivatives reporting: Malaysian case," SocArXiv npa6v, Center for Open Science.
    9. Steve Fortin & Ahmad Hammami & Michel Magnan, 2021. "Re‐exploring Fair Value Accounting and Value Relevance: An Examination of Underlying Securities," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 57(2), pages 220-250, June.
    10. Kausar, Asad & Shroff, Nemit & White, Hal, 2016. "Real effects of the audit choice," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 157-181.
    11. Peter J. Boettke & Alexander W. Salter & Daniel J. Smith, 2018. "Money as meta-rule: Buchanan’s constitutional economics as a foundation for monetary stability," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 529-555, September.
    12. Andy Lardon & Marc Deloof, 2014. "Financial disclosure by SMEs listed on a semi-regulated market: evidence from the Euronext Free Market," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 361-385, February.
    13. Gus De Franco & Yuyan Guan & Yibin Zhou & Xindong Zhu, 2024. "The Impact of Credit Market Development on Auditor Choice: Evidence from Banking Deregulation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 589-634, May.
    14. J. Toms, 2001. "Information content of earnings in an unregulated market: the co-operative cotton mills of Lancashire, 1880–1900," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(3), pages 175-190.
    15. Persakis, Anthony & Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2016. "Audit quality, investor protection and earnings management during the financial crisis of 2008: An international perspective," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 73-101.
    16. Christopher J. Coyne & Abigail R. Hall, 2019. "State-Provided Defense as Noncomprehensive Planning," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 34(Spring 20), pages 75-85.
    17. Charles Delmotte, 2021. "Simple rules and the Political Economy of Income Taxation: the strengths of a uniform expense rule," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 323-339, December.
    18. Ray Ball, 2009. "Market and Political/Regulatory Perspectives on the Recent Accounting Scandals," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 277-323, May.
    19. Arrunada, Benito & Paz-Ares, Candido, 1997. "Mandatory rotation of company auditors: A critical examination," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 31-61, March.
    20. Kharuddin, Khairul Ayuni Mohd & Basioudis, Ilias G & Farooque, Omar Al, 2021. "Effects of the Big 4 national and city-level industry expertise on audit quality in the United Kingdom," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:31:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s11138-017-0385-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.