Market, power, gift, and concession economies: Comparison using four-mode primitive network models

Reducing wealth inequality is a global challenge, and the problems of capitalism stem from the enclosure of the commons and the breakdown of the community. According to previous studies by Polanyi, Karatani, and Graeber, economic modes can be divided into capitalist market economy (enclosure and exchange), power economy (de-enclosure and redistribution), gift economy (obligation to return and reciprocity), and concession economy (de-obligation to return). The concession economy reflects Graeber’s baseline communism (from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs) and Deguchi’s We-turn philosophy (the “I” as an individual has a “fundamental incapability” and the subject of physical action, responsibility, and freedom is “We” as a multi-agent system, including the “I”). In this study, we constructed novel network models for these four modes and compared their properties (cluster coefficient, graph density, reciprocity, assortativity, centrality, and Gini coefficient). Our calculation results show that the market economy has more inequality; the power economy mitigates inequality but cannot eliminate it; the gift and concession economies lead to a more healthy and equal economy; and the concession economy, free from the constraints of obligation to return, is possible without guaranteeing reciprocity. In comparison with the established models, we found that the power economy is equivalent to Barabási–Albert model with power law, that the gift and concession economies can be positioned within variations of Watts–Strogatz model with small-world property, and that the approach from concession to gift economies is more effective in reducing inequality, fostering natural reciprocity while avoiding the constraints of return. We intend to promote the transformation from a capitalist economy to a concession economy through activities that disseminate baseline communism and the We-turn philosophy that promotes concession, that is, developing a cooperative platform to support concession through information technology and empirical research through fieldwork.