IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/tek/journl/v3y2014i1p13-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Capitalism as a Complex Evolving System

Author

Listed:
  • David Colander

    (Middlebury College)

Abstract

Economies are often classified into polar divisions—socialist, capitalist, communist. That approach is not especially useful. Successful systems are by nature pragmatic, and they evolve into blended pragmatic systems that quickly move out of any pre-specified space. Accepting that all systems are pragmatic has significant implications for economic thinking; for example, it suggests that economist’s tendency to see the economy and government as separate and not co-evolving intertwined systems mischaracterizes the policy problems facing society. The paper briefly outlines the policy implications of seeing the economy as a complex evolving system, arguing an important policy goal of government is to set up an ecostructure that helps individuals achieve their ethically acceptable desires and goals for a life well lived. Theoretical debates about market vs. government do little to further that goal.

Suggested Citation

  • David Colander, 2014. "Capitalism as a Complex Evolving System," Ekonomi-tek - International Economics Journal, Turkish Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 13-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:tek:journl:v:3:y:2014:i:1:p:13-22
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ekonomitek.org/pdffile/no7_08_david_colander.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mill, John Stuart, 1848. "Principles of Political Economy (II): Distribution," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, volume 2, number mill1848-2.
    2. David Colander & Roland Kupers, 2014. "Complexity and the Art of Public Policy: Solving Society’s Problems from the Bottom Up," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10207.
    3. Mill, John Stuart, 1848. "Principles of Political Economy (III): Exchange," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, volume 3, number mill1848-3.
    4. Mill, John Stuart, 1848. "Principles of Political Economy (I): Production," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, volume 1, number mill1848-1.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ercan Uygur, 2014. "Some Observations on the Global Economy and ICE-TEA 2014," Ekonomi-tek - International Economics Journal, Turkish Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 1-12, January.

    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. McCloskey Deirdre Nansen, 2018. "The Two Movements in Economic Thought, 1700–2000: Empty Economic Boxes Revisited," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Eloi Laurent & Jacques Le Cacheux, 2006. "Integrity and Efficiency in the EU: The Case against the European economic constitution," Working Papers hal-00972707, HAL.
    3. Peter T. Leeson, 2009. "The Laws of Lawlessness," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(2), pages 471-503, June.
    4. Ian Keay, 2019. "Protection for maturing industries: Evidence from Canadian trade patterns and trade policy, 1870–1913," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(4), pages 1464-1496, November.
    5. Robert Scherf & Matthew Weinzierl, 2020. "Understanding Different Approaches to Benefit‐Based Taxation," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 385-410, June.
    6. Dario Stevanato, 2017. "Tassazione progressiva, equit? del prelievo e Flat Tax," ECONOMIA E SOCIET? REGIONALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(1), pages 122-147.
    7. Melitz, Marc J., 2005. "When and how should infant industries be protected?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 177-196, May.
    8. Jacobsen, Catrine & Piovesan, Marco, 2016. "Tax me if you can: An artifactual field experiment on dishonesty," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 7-14.
    9. Martimort, David, 1996. "The multiprincipal nature of government," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-5), pages 673-685, April.
    10. Oscar Molina Tejerina & Luis Castro Peñarrieta, 2020. "Unexplained Wage Gaps in the Tradable and Nontradable Sectors: Cross-Sectional Evidence by Gender in Bolivia," Investigación & Desarrollo 0120, Universidad Privada Boliviana, revised Nov 2020.
    11. Deepak Lal, 2003. "Free Trade and Laissez Faire: Has the Wheel Come Full Circle?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 471-482, April.
    12. Wurm, Laura, 2021. "Strangling speculation: The effect of the 1903 Viennese futures trading ban," QUCEH Working Paper Series 21-09, Queen's University Belfast, Queen's University Centre for Economic History.
    13. Doris Neuberger & Udo Reifner, 2020. "Systemic Usury and the European Consumer Credit Directive," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 89(1), pages 115-132.
    14. Vittorio Pelligra, 2013. "Trust," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Stefano Zamagni (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Reciprocity and Social Enterprise, chapter 40, pages 411-420, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Tsoulfidis, Lefteris & Alexiou, Constantinos & Parthenidis, Thanasis, 2015. "Revisiting profit persistence and the stock market in Japan," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 10-24.
    16. Wilfred Dolfsma & Patrick J. Welch, 2009. "Paradigms and Novelty in Economics: The History of Economic Thought as a Source of Enlightenment," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(5), pages 1085-1106, November.
    17. Ian Moffatt, 2013. "Measuring sustainable development," Chapters, in: M. A. Quaddus & M. A.B. Siddique (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development Planning, chapter 3, pages 39-60, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Simone Pellegrino & Guido Perboli & Giovanni Squillero, 2019. "Balancing the equity-efficiency trade-off in personal income taxation: an evolutionary approach," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 36(1), pages 37-64, April.
    19. Lefteris Tsoulfidis & Persefoni Tsaliki, 2011. "Classical Competition and Regulating Capital: Theory and Empirical Evidence," Discussion Paper Series 2011_02, Department of Economics, University of Macedonia, revised Feb 2011.
    20. Jerry Kirkpatrick, 2004. "Reisman's Net Consumption, Net Investment Theory of Aggregate Profit," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 627-646, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Complexity; economic systems; capitalism; socialism; government policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P1 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies
    • P2 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies
    • P4 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • O2 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:tek:journl:v:3:y:2014:i:1:p:13-22. 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: Ercan Uygur (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/tekkkea.html .

    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.