Entanglement and Perverse Spontaneous Orders

This paper examines the evolution of spontaneous orders within Wagner’s entangled political economy framework. Most examinations of how interventions affect spontaneous orders use what Wagner calls an “additive” framework of political economy. That is to say, they take as their starting point an unhampered market order, and evaluate what happens when the polity begins to encroach on the economy. Wagner, by contrast, considers polity and economy to be so intimately entwined as to be logically inseparable in many situations. This paper examines the implications for the evolution of spontaneous orders if we take entanglement as the starting point of our analysis. Few orders emerge within a pure market context, and few political actions are able to be fully centrally planned. Coupled with the fact that people are alert to opportunities to better their circumstances in all environments, this helps us better understand why some emergent orders might evolve which are considered perverse from the standpoint of those participating in those orders. This paper concludes by applying the entangled political economy framework to the case of the evolution of the public aid system in the United States. Certainly, this system is characterized by significant public ordering, but it is also the case that the ecology of relationships and enterprises that have emerged in response to the public aid system are different than what would otherwise exist.