Pareto, Economics and Society: The Mechanical Analogy

by McLure,Michael

• ISBN13: 9780415241748
• ISBN10: 041524174X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Vilfredo Pareto was one of the great systems theorists of the Twentieth Century, embracing economics, psychology, sociology and politics. In this important work, Michael McLure takes as his subject of study the rapport between Pareto's economic and sociological theory, and consequently, illuminates the role of economics in public policy development.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. x
Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xiv
Acknowledgements	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
The purpose of the study	p. 1
Central thesis and research goals	p. 2
The contribution of the study	p. 5
Economic approaches to Paretian studies	p. 7
The structure of this research	p. 10
Conclusion	p. 15
Pure economic studies of Pareto's work	p. 15
Socio-economic studies of Pareto's work	p. 17
Sociological/political studies of Pareto's work	p. 18
Methodology	p. 20
Introduction	p. 20
Methodological lessons from the physical sciences	p. 21
Scientific propositions about social phenomena	p. 27
The study of non-logical conduct	p. 28
Some critical assessments	p. 32
Conclusion	p. 38
Method: the analytical elements of pure economics and general sociology	p. 40
Introduction	p. 40
Pure economics: the evolution of homo oeconomicus	p. 40
General sociology: elites, residues, derivations, interests	p. 50
The rapport between pure economics and general sociology	p. 58
Rational fools in relation to logical and non-logical conduct	p. 61
Economic policy: logical and non-logical conduct	p. 63
Conclusion	p. 64
Determinism, ideology and the mechanical analogy	p. 67
Introduction	p. 67
The mechanical analogy and Laplacian determinism	p. 68
Mirowski's critique of Pareto on exchange theory	p. 71
The mechanical analogy in the Cours	p. 73
Integrating the mechanical analogy with the economic 'fact of choice'	p. 76
Dobb: the cause of value in general equilibrium systems	p. 78
Conclusion	p. 87
Mirowski (1989): the conservation of energy and the neoclassical theory of value	p. 87
Mirowski (1989): comments on Pareto and the integrability problem	p. 90
Collective economic welfare	p. 91
Introduction	p. 91
"Il Massimo di Utilita dato dalla Libera Concorrenza" and the Cours	p. 93
The Scorza/Pareto polemic (I): sociology of knowledge	p. 98
The Scorza/Pareto polemic (II): economic maximum and methodology	p. 101
The Scorza/Pareto polemic (III): Chipman's final comments	p. 107
Scorza's influence on the 1906 Manuale/1909 Manuel	p. 110
Conclusion	p. 113
Equations related to collective economic welfare	p. 114
Les Systemes Socialistes and Buchanan's constitutive elements of economic policy	p. 119
Introduction	p. 119
Sentiment and socialist systems	p. 120
Romance and democracy	p. 123
Methodological individualism	p. 124
Homo oeconomicus	p. 125
Politics-as-exchange or politics-as-power?	p. 130
Normative issues: rules, outcomes and social selection	p. 133
Conclusion	p. 137
Rationality, individualism and public policy	p. 139
Introduction	p. 139
Irreducibly social goods	p. 140
Rational and irrational behaviour	p. 143
Preference manipulation and non-logical actions	p. 147
Preference differentiation by type and institution	p. 152
Conclusion	p. 153
Government and public policy	p. 155
Introduction	p. 155
Contextual information	p. 156
Personal utility, expected social utility and 'government'	p. 163
Public policy	p. 172
Conclusion	p. 175
Preference types, personal utility and expected social utility	p. 176
Conclusion	p. 179
General finding	p. 179
Findings related to the goals of the study	p. 179
Future research	p. 185
Pareto's major publications	p. 187
Notes	p. 194
Bibliography	p. 206
Index	p. 219
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