A SOCIOLOGICAL MODEL OF INFLATION.

Recent attempts by British writers to give sociological accounts of inflationary processes suffer from the defect that they fail to distinguish clearly between factors which are inherent in all capitalist societies and those that are peculiar to British industrial development. Hence their discussions make it unclear whether the `British sickness', which includes high inflation, is likley to be prototypical of all capitalist societies. This paper begins by examining how `sociological' factors enter into economists' explanations of inflation and goes on to outline a distinctively sociological model of inflation. The model has four elements: the extent to which economistic values are held by different groups of income-receivers; the existence and strength of any normative system which might restrain the pursuit of such values; the structure of power between groups of income-receivers; and the structural capacity of the socio-economic system to meet the demands placed on it. It is suggested that two different configurations of these variables are empirically more likely to occur. One being highly likely to promote inflationary tendencies, the other being likely to mitigate such pressures. Finally, it is argued that Britain's particular pattern of industrial development means that she corresponds to the first type, whereas other capitalist societies with different historical paths may correspond to the second type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]