Search

The marginalist revolution in economics became the foundation for the modem regulatory State with its "mixed" economy. For the classical political economists, value was a function of past averages. Marginalism substituted forward looking theories based on expectations about firm and market performance. Marginalism swept through university economics, and by 1920 or so virtually every academic economist was a marginalist. This Article considers the historical influence of marginalism on regulatory policy in the United States. My view is at odds with those who argue that marginalism saved capitalism by rationalizing it as a more defensible buttress against incipient socialism. While marginalism did permit economists and policy makers to strike a middle ground between laissez faire and socialism, the "middle ground" tilted very strongly toward public control. Ironically, regulation plus private ownership was able to go much further in the United States than socialism ever could because it preserved the rhetoric of capital as privately owned, even as it deprived firms of many of the most important indicia of ownership. Marginalism upended many of the classical conceptions about the market, including assumptions about their robustness, as well as the need for government intervention and the optimal type. For regulatory policy the most important issues were: (1) The fixed-cost controversy and the scope of natural monopoly; (2) cost classification, incentives, and ratemaking; (3) the changing domain of market failure, and regulation and Pigouvian taxes as correctives; (4) market diversity and the rise of sector regulation; (5) deregulation; (6) concerns about the distribution of wealth; (7) the development of cost-benefit analysis; and (8) the assessment of risk. The final section examines risk management under marginalism by looking at two diverse but important areas: negligence and products liability in tort law, and administrative review of patents by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internal conflict in trade unions has been the subject of considerable academic interest. Often described as intra-union tensions, the basic divergence in priorities and concerns between union officialdom and their members on the shop floor has inspired a multiplicity of pioneering workplace studies and theoretical frameworks. However, while these hierarchical divisions in trade union organisations have received concerted attention, another manifestation of intra-union discord remains relatively under-explored. Inter-sectional or ‘horizontal’ conflict can be described as two sets of workers from different trade groups within the same union which are embroiled in competition or rivalry, usually in the same workplace. Although the loosely associated concept of sectionalism was identified as a re-emerging trend in British trade unionism in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been little attempt to document how conflict can occur between two sections of workers working side-by-side. This article will present a case of horizontal conflict from the British dock industry and consider under what circumstances and pressures the phenomenon is likely to occur. The two sections featured historically had an uneasy relationship and rationalisation of the industry, allied with the neoliberal restructuring of the British economy in the 1980s, exacerbated this. In these contexts, workers began to exhibit greater levels of group self-interest which amplified inter-sectional tensions further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a view into literal, figurative, and social specters of Black life. It looks at ever-evolving archive of American democracy as it grapples with the ways the nation continues to rely upon Christian claims, logics, and myths to support its tragic rationalization of black death. It suggests that black bodies remain bound within the violent, necrotic precincts of anti-black racism and white supremacy.

This article examines the rise of ''test-optional'' college admissions policies since the 1990s. I argue that the rationalization of college admissions policies after World War II contributed to the rise of ''meritocratic'' stratification (in policy) and standardized tests, like the SAT, but it also led to the expansion and legitimation of the roles of student and school personhood in the admissions process. Schools more committed to enlarged conceptions of student personhood are more likely to adopt a test-optional policy, in order to recruit students who fit the distinctive characteristics of their school identity. To test the argument, I use a comprehensive data set of 1,640 colleges and universities in the United States and discrete-time event history models from 1987 to 2015. I also assess alternative arguments that emphasize economic or prestige-driven motives. Liberal arts colleges and schools committed to several dimensions of student personhood are more likely to adopt test-optional policies, net of other factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent do right-wing groups demonstrate internal alignment in their use of racial ideologies? Under what conditions with respect to internal alignment do mainstream media legitimize these groups by relaying their messages to the public as the organizations intended? We analyzed two decades’ worth of organizational literature and media coverage to examine the relationship between internal and external frame alignment. The findings reveal that organizations display ideological flexibility in their public documents. Organizations receive mainstream legitimacy when groups use a framing strategy that avoids the rhetoric of old racism, selectively incorporates the discourse of white victimhood, and emphasizes the language of new racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes how teachers in U.S. classrooms navigate, dialogue, debate, and absorb the ideas of privilege, power, and the presence of various forms of injustices. Through their understanding of these topics, we explore how K-12 teachers engage, disengage, and rationalize issues of social justice in education, society, and their own classrooms. This article utilizes teachers' dialogue through one curricular design used by a group of teacher educators to ensure safety, dialogue, and reflection. Using a grounded theory approach, we find that teachers lie on a continuum somewhere between shirking or embracing their role and responsibilities towards social justice. By highlighting K-12 teachers' understandings and positionalities regarding social justice, this study helps teacher educators charged with preparing teachers to better recognize the challenges we face in bringing social justice curricula to teacher education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article revisits the Fraud Triangle, an explanatory framework for financial fraud, originally developed by the American criminologist Donald Cressey from his interviews with embezzlers. First of all, we describe several developmental cornerstones of the Fraud Triangle. Its recent theoretical and practical application is reconsidered. In accordance with the three elements - motivation, opportunity, rationalization - and on the basis of our empirical study of 13 company fraudsters in Austria and Switzerland, we illustrate some within-company measures, which may contribute to a low fraud risk corporate culture. Although opportunity is necessary but not a sufficient condition for 'upperworld' criminal offences, our respondents regard the perceived pressures they experienced as salient. Rather than rationalizations, there is a 'fraud-inhibiting inner voice' before the crime, which normally deters an individual from fraudulent behaviour. This inner voice becomes quieter over time until the fraud occurs; at least in their cases. Our interviewees argue that all Fraud Triangle elements - including the inner voice - are highly influenced by the corporate culture in their companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's insights on the use of flexible office space or virtual office by several U.S. companies. Topics discussed include the association of workplace casualization to the rise of precarious and temporary employment, the impact of intellectual rationalization on workplace structure and character, and the sense of individualism of Americans.

Recent debates in the United States have pitted the fiscal imperative of rationalizing the budget against the social narrative that society has an obligation to take care of its service members and veterans. This civil-military disconnect is a result of the structural necessity in so-called liberal market economies (LME) to focus significant portions of their military compensation on benefits, in addition to pay. These benefits-- for example, health care, childcare, education, and retirement--are not broadly provided to all citizens in LMEs and constitute attractive recruiting incentives. However, it is difficult to control their costs and difficult to limit or remove them once implemented. Thus, the United States is caught in a benefits trap with challenging civil-military and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the economic rationalization and moral justification of capitalist systems in England and America between the 17必1 and 19出 centuries within the framework of modes of exchange. On the surface, there existed a shared sociopolitical outcome which legitimized personal wealth, individualism, and political liberty. But contrary to conventional understanding, early English and American socioeconomic underpinnings of the market economy created different, if not divergent, motivational bases among the state, aristocracy, and the masses. Specifically, the English landed gentry formed a leisure class that shaped a culture of "gentlemanly" capitalism and enjoyed conspicuous consumption, while early American capitalists championed labor and hard work in tandem with a marked Puritan ethic. Thus, even for seemingly similar modes of exchange, very different patterns of ethical justifications of business practices existed. This supports the broader hypothesis that the evolution of modes of exchange requires geographicallyand historically-specific moral or ethical justifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial recent literature has examined insurance as a mechanism for economizing uncertain but potentially catastrophic events. Less attention has been paid to how insurantial techniques for economizing catastrophe have been deployed aspolitical technologies. Focusing on discussions of US flood policy in the 1960s, the present article examines how insurance was used to forge new articulations and accommodations between political government and processes of rationalization. On the one hand, insurance provided atechnical solutionto problems that had long confronted US policy-makers: How to reduce losses from floods? How to fully compensate individuals who suffered losses? On the other hand, insurance was a device forreshaping the aims and objects of government, and for reframing questions that are more frequently situated at the level of political philosophy: What are the respective responsibilities of individual citizens and government in providing security? What tradeoffs must be made between the provision of security and economic rationality? What values are relevant in orienting public policy? In examining these issues, the article raises questions about standard narratives about the changing relations among risk, responsibility, and security in recent decades, particularly as they relate to neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Andrew Cherlin (2009) concludes that the popularity of American marriage continues despite cultural individualism because marriage is a source of prestige. We argue that individualism be understood theoretically as a lack of culture, and that Americans marry not in spite of individualism, but because of it. Americans' desire to marry makes sense in a rationalized society where few cultural elements and institutions provide people with feelings of belonging and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudos de Sociologia is the property of Universidade Estadual Paulista and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)