John R. Commons, among other original institutional economists, argued for the interests of the common people against the power of vested interests in politics and business. Against this backdrop, a ...new book by Thomas C. Leonard contends that, in fact, these same economists were actually "illiberal" and only promoted the interests of certain groups, such as Anglo-Saxon men, and were against the progression of minority populations, women, or the disabled. But Leonard's argument that these economists were "illiberal," and that their entire reform program related to the role of government in the economy and the creation of the administrative state, is essentially defunct. As Leonard (
2016
, xiv) writes in the prologue, "expertise in the service of the administrative state, what progressives call social control, has survived the discredited notions once used to uphold it." We respond to Leonard's book by offering a direct critique of the arguments he makes. We argue that Leonard - at least partially - takes the founders' view on these issues out of context, and that even where some of their views would be refused by today's institutional economists, it does not mean that the entire reform project is rejected.
We compare the analytical approach of John R. Common and Ronald H. Coase to institutional analysis and social provisioning. In particular, we examine their similarities in (i) the definition and role ...of institutions in the economy, (ii) the allocative (social provisioning) role of institutions in the economy, and (iii) the inescapable and unchanging role of institutions in shaping the social provisioning process. We contend that Commons and Coase had more in common than did Coase and many of his followers in the "new institutional economics." In particular, the two had strong similarities in both (a) their insights into the nature of institutions in the legal-economic nexus that is the foundation of the economy and (b) their methods for conducting economics research. Because this role of institutional evolution is, as Warren Samuels noted, an inescapable and unchanging part of an economy's social provisioning process, it will remain an integral part of any such work in the future, regardless of the "school of analysis" or methodological approach.
Browne and Schweikhardt apply Jonathan Rauch's concept of demosclerosis to the agricultural policy process. They show how the structure of interest group representation influences US agricultural ...policy and policy making.
Bonnen et al briefly review the literature on the putative "end of the nation-state" and the forces of global integration causing a reallocation of roles in federal governments. This knowledge is ...related to the changing nature of policy decisions and politics in national governments. They also examine the changing role of national governments in agriculture.
A new politics of food has arrived. Interest groups are no longer required to rely on traditional legislative means to achieve their political objectives. Instead, changes in the political economy of ...the food system and the economic structure of the food system make it possible to practice politics by other means, including the use of the market to achieve political objectives. The increasing transaction costs of legislative decision making, the slow growth in the demand for food in developed country markets, the increasing demand for specific food product attributes, and the highly concentrated state of most food markets can make it advantageous for interest groups to pursue their political objectives through the market rather than through legislative channels. In the new politics of food, the market, the legislature, the bureaucracy, and the judiciary are all arenas within which the art of politics will be practiced.
Economists play several distinct but necessary roles in the process of translating economic knowledge from the discipline to use in policy decisions. Economists engaged in disciplinary research might ...legitimately deal with more simplified abstractions of economic problems in conducting their research, whereas those engaged in providing policy analysis and advice to policy makers might face different constraints on the types of analysis that can be used by policy makers. In the role of policy analyst or adviser, economists face a number of challenges and risks. Those preparing to engage in such roles should understand (a) the constraints that will be faced in using and communicating economic analysis to policy makers, (b) the limitations of economic theory in addressing policy issues faced by decision makers, and (c) the risks inherent in participating in the policy-making process. The economist entering the policy process must be prepared to present economic advice in a manner that is easily understood and communicated and be prepared to address dimensions of policy problems that might not comply with the standard assumptions of neoclassical theory. The policy adviser must also be prepared to deal with databases that are often inadequate for decision-making purposes, time constraints that preclude the completion of a thorough analysis, value dimensions of policy issues that might overrule the results of economic analysis, and the fundamentally different roles of the policy maker and the economic adviser in the decision-making process.
Agricultural policy decision processes are overburdened by openess, and the development of coherent national policies is not possible under such a burden. The goal shifts instead to merely passing ...legislation and including some measure of policy gain for as many interests as possible.
Case study research is increasingly important in agricultural economics as a means of collecting data, and building and testing theory. Case study research has a prescribed set of objectives, ...espitemology, methodology, and methods that have been developed and tested in a wide range of scholarly and problem-solving situations. This article reviews these fundamentals and then demonstrates the case study approach within the context of an agribusiness research project. This application exemplifies how case study research is capable of generating a robust, comprehensive array of “knowledge” about complex, highly interdependent and dynamic economic and social phenomena.
The United States Department of Agriculture was founded as a scientific research organization, but ultimately gave way to delivering public policy benefits to select groups. Browne considers the ...establishment of two such USDA agencies, the Bureau of Agricultural Economics and its successor, the Economic Research Service.
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