Contested Exchange Versus the Governance of Contractual Relations

Abstract

There is much in the paper by Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis [“The Revenge of Homo Economicus: Contested Exchange and the Revival of Political Economy”] with which I agree. But there are also real differences—which is to be expected, since they and I examine economic organization through very different lenses. Thus whereas they view economic organization through the lens of power and contested exchange, I believe that economizing and governance is, for most purposes, a more productive perspective. I also have a variety of minor differences with their paper.