The Public Market - Company Managers Should be Public Actors Rather than Private Agents :: Public Administration Economics

The Public Market - Company Managers Should be Public Actors Rather than Private Agents ABSTRACT: The marketplace as an institution enjoys widespread popularity today. Many economists hold that most of society’s problems could be best solved by applying the market mechanism to them. Government, by contrast, is widely considered to be a problem rather than a solution. Some would like to see the government restructured along market lines so that policies would follow voter choice, as products follow that of consumers. Some, myself included, believe that a world in which all relationships are rendered matters of private choice would lack the "public happiness" that comes from participation in public discourse and concerted action. In this paper I address what it would mean for the market to be truly public. A market that is truly public will discourage speculative investment so that managers of various firms can concentrate on the long term good of creating a social institution through which the concerted efforts of various stakeholders are coordinated. In this way, stakeholders can enrich the world through their work. The market as an institution enjoys widespread popularity today. It is held by many economists, those of the Chicago School especially, that all social problems — crime, education, health care, and discrimination — are solvable by use of the market mechanism. (1) Politics and government, by contrast, are considered by many to be problems rather than solutions. Some today even seek public office precisely to prevent government from carrying on its functions, because they and their constituencies have lost faith in government and public life. These "conservatives" believe that "privatizing" government functions, by replacing public initiatives and agencies with private firms, will establish new freedom for people to act on market choices rather than to acquiesce in laws and administrative decisions reached through the political process. Others would reconstitute government in a more market-like way, so that political deliberation and decision should follow from "public ch oices" as merchandisers follow the tastes and preferences of customers. For "public choice" theorists, as well, the public character of politics should be replaced by the private decisions of voters/consumers on the options presented them by their erstwhile leaders. (2) The public character of life is being lost. Our society is being structured by the choices of citizens concerned with themselves and their families and acquaintances, rather than with the larger public, which is increasingly but an aggregate of private persons anyway.