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Everything for Sale? Neoliberalism and the Limits of Michael Sandel’s Philosophical Critique of Markets
Abstract
Contesting the central tenets of mainstream economic theory, Michael Sandel’s work on markets argues that the marketization of certain goods risks corrupting the value of those goods, and that a reinvigorated public discourse is needed to establish the appropriate use of markets. This article assesses Sandel’s work on markets, arguing that although it provides a convincing critique of liberal defenses of the market, it does not do enough to challenge marketization itself. To illuminate the flaws of Sandel’s argument, the article contrasts it with Marxist critiques of neoliberalism, arguing that the latter oppose the expansion of markets and market thinking in more comprehensive and productive ways. Specifically, it is argued that Sandel ignores the one market that underpins all other markets, namely the labor market; erroneously suggests that marketization is caused by the dominance of market thinking; and fails to appreciate the class interests that are served by growing marketization.
... As pointed out by several authors (e.g. Bruni & Sugden, 2013;Choat, 2018;Qizilbash, 2019;Satz, 2010;Wempe & Frooman, 2018), the idea of moral limits to markets has been developed by a number of authors before Sandel (2012a). These earlier authors include Walzer (1983), MacIntyre (1984, Radin (1986), Anderson (1993), Satz (2010) and even Sandel's (2010) earlier book on justice. ...
This paper questions the dominance of market-based mechanisms (MBMs) as the primary means of climate change mitigation. It argues that, not only they are unsuccessful on their own terms, but also they actually make the task more difficult by the unintended consequence of normalising the act of polluting and crowding out alternatives. The theoretical contribution of the paper is to draw a link between two bodies of literature. The first is the business ethics literature on the dominance of market-based rather than direct regulation, and the second is the literature on market ethics, particularly the work of Michael Sandel on how MBMs crowd out non-market norms. The empirical contribution is to use the international maritime transport sector to illustrate the way market-based regulation renders alternatives such as direct regulation and supply-side approaches invisible.
... Ten years after the bailout, the government still owned 62% of the bank (Mor, 2018), and it is estimated that the bailout costed UK taxpayers £23.2 billion (Office for Budget Responsibility, 2018: Table 4.4). The financial crisis is but an example of how a Liberal Market Economy (LME 1 ) such as the UK often does not operate according to market principles; indeed, a large body of scholarly literature highlights the divergence between neo-liberalism in theory and how it translates into practice (Choat, 2018;Hall, 2015). Moreover, the approach of the US, another LME, was somewhat different from that of the UK. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in governments playing increasingly prominent roles as active economic agents. However, state capitalism does not necessarily serve broad developmental purposes, and rather can be directed to supporting sectional and private interests. As the literature on variegated capitalism alerts us, governments and other actors regularly devise fixes in response to a systemic crisis, but the focus, scale and scope of the interventions vary considerably, according to the constellation of interests. Rapid progress with vaccines notwithstanding, the UK government's response to COVID-19 has been associated with much controversy, not only because of an extraordinarily high death rate, but also because of allegations of cronyism around the granting of government contracts and bailouts. We focus on the latter, investigating more closely who got bailed out. We find that badly affected sectors (e.g., hospitality, transportation) and larger employers were more likely to get bailouts. However, the latter also favored the politically influential and those who had run up debt profligately. Although, as with state capitalism, crony capitalism is most often associated with emerging markets, we conclude that the two have coalesced into a peculiarly British variety, but one that has some common features with other major liberal markets. This might suggest that the eco-systemic dominance of the latter is coming to an end, or, at the least, that this model is drifting towards one that assumes many of the features commonly associated with developing nations.
Under the influence of unencumbered-self anthropology of liberalism, the role of community in forming individual identity in modern society is declining. Michael Sandel proposes a fundamental criticism of liberalism anthropology as the trigger for the tyranny of meritocracy, solidarity crisis, and social polarization in various democratic countries today. This research aims to analyze further the reimagination of identity in contemporary society using Sandel’s thoughts on the multiply-situated self and the role of community. The research uses a qualitative approach, namely a literature review and content analysis. This research indicates that each individual can realize freedom only in a community with shared values and projects of the common good. As a formative project, the common good is impossible to achieve through solitary reflection but rather through shared ethical reasoning and involvement within a community. The research concludes that multiply-situated self and community are the two elements of moral foundation in building a culture of cooperation and solidarity in democratic and plural society. Abstrak Akibat konsep ununcumbered-self dalam antropologi filosofis liberalisme, peran komunitas dalam mengkonstruksi identitas individu pada masyarakat modern kian merosot. Michael Sandel mengajukan kritik fundamental terhadap konsep liberalisme tersebut. Menurutnya, antropologi filosofis liberal adalah akar tirani meritokrasi, krisis solidaritas, dan polarisasi sosial dalam berbagai masyarakat demokratis hari ini. Penelitian ini bertujuan menggunakan perspektif filsafat komunitarian Sandel untuk menganalisis lebih lanjut tentang reimajinasi identitas dalam masyarakat kontemporer. Melalui pendekatan kualitatif, yaitu lewat review literatur dan analisis kritis, penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa setiap individu dapat mewujudkan kebebasannya hanya dalam suatu komunitas yang memiliki nilai bersama dan komitmen pada kebaikan umum. Sebagai sebuah proyek formatif, kebaikan umum tidak mungkin dicapai melalui refleksi soliter melainkan hanya melalui penalaran etis secara kolektif dan tindakan bersama. Penelitian ini menyimpulkan bahwa multiply-situated self dan komunitas adalah fondasi moral dari budaya kerja sama dan solidaritas dalam setiap masyarakat demokratis dan plural, termasuk Indonesia. Kata-kata kunci: komunitarianisme, liberalisme, multiply-situated self, komunitas, demokrasi
Claims about ‘the commodification of everything’ are a staple of 21st century left (and some liberal) analysis and critique. These claims, however, are asserted much more often than they are backed up, and little attention has been devoted to thinking through how they might be substantiated or to what ‘the commodification of everything’ actually means. This paper contributes to contemporary debates over capitalism, commodification and politics by suggesting ways that commodification-of-everything arguments can be better specified and evaluated. It identifies four variants of commodification-of-everything claims; reviews and critiques the literature's uses of the terms ‘commodity’, ‘everything’ and ‘thing’; and articulates three possible definitions of ‘the commodification of everything’ that raise additional questions about defining ‘sale’ and ‘market’ and the implications of thinking of things as commodities. The conclusion suggests reframings of the relationship between capitalism and commodification that seek to preserve the force of commodification-of-everything claims while avoiding their pitfalls.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in governments playing increasingly prominent roles as active economic agents. However, state capitalism does not necessarily serve broad developmental purposes, and rather can be directed to supporting sectional and private interests. As the literature on variegated capitalism alerts us, governments and other actors regularly devise fixes in response to a systemic crisis, but the focus, scale, and scope of the interventions vary considerably, according to the constellation of interests. Rapid progress with vaccines notwithstanding, the UK government's response to COVID-19 has been associated with much controversy, not only because of an extraordinarily high death rate, but also because of allegations of cronyism around the granting of government contracts and bailouts. We focus on the latter, investigating more closely who got bailed out. We find that badly affected sectors (e.g. hospitality, transportation) and larger employers were more likely to get bailouts. However, the latter also favored the politically influential and those who had run up debt profligately. Although, as with state capitalism, crony capitalism is most often associated with emerging markets, we conclude that the two have coalesced into a peculiarly British variety, but one that has some common features with other major liberal markets. This might suggest that the eco-systemic dominance of the latter is coming to an end, or, at the least, that this model is drifting towards one that assumes many of the features commonly associated with developing nations.
Karl Polanyi and Friedrich Hayek are often portrayed as implacable intellectual opponents but their respective historical trajectories suggest some telling similarities. Here we describe some key similarities in their approach to markets, as a prelude to evaluating the political consequences of relying upon their Austrian conceptions of nature-based and constructivist framing of markets. Perhaps it is time to transcend their dichotomy.
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