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	Economic rationalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Economic rationalism is an Australian term in discussion of microeconomic policy, applicable to the economic policy of many governments around the world, in particular during the 1980s and 1990s.
		The term "economic rationalism" is commonly used in criticism of free-market economic policies as amoral or asocial.
		Economic rationalism, by John Quiggin, Professor of Economics, James Cook University, Published as: Quiggin, J. (1997), 'Economic rationalism', Crossings, 2(1), 3-12.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Economic_rationalism (434 words)

	John Quiggin - Journal Articles 1997 - Economic rationalism
		More generally, 'economic rationalism' was used by Weber and Tawney to refer to the view that commercial activity, particularly borrowing and lending, represents a sphere of activity in which moral considerations, beyond the rule of business probity dictated by enlightened self-interest, have no role to play.
		By the late 1970s, economic rationalists had largely adopted the microeconomic views of the Chicago school, rejecting ideas of market failure in favour of the belief that the simple neoclassical model of perfect competition was a good description of the economy, or would be in the absence of undesirable government intervention.
		Economic rationalism cannot be blamed for the initial rise in unemployment, but it has been a major obstacle to any serious policy response.
	www.uq.edu.au /economics/johnquiggin/JournalArticles97/Econrat97.html (3971 words)

	Transcript - Program 11 - The Rise of Economic Rationalism
		'Economic rationalism' is a term that's often used in Australia, and sometimes in other countries, to describe a range of economic policies which aim to reduce the extent of government intervention in the economy and to rely more on markets to organise economic activity.
		Economic rationalists believe that the economy is self-correcting and by that they mean that there are forces at work in the economy that are always pushing the economy towards something called equilibrium - the situation where demand would equal supply.
		Economic rationalists believe that if the economy is not in equilibrium, the problem is not with the nature of economic forces as such, the problem is really to do with distortions or rigidities in the economy that are hampering this tendency towards equilibrium.
	www.abc.net.au /money/vault/programs/prog11.htm (3437 words)

	managerialism (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		Enteman (1993), for example, describes managerialism as an international ideology on which rests the economic, social, and political order of advanced industrialised societies and from which arises the impoverished notion that societies are equivalent to the sum of the transactions made by the managements of organisations.
		Weber’s notion of the ‘iron cage’ of bureaucratic rationality explains the oppressive potential of a society that is increasingly governed by its logic of instrumental reason.
		In this new rational economic order, social decisions are defined within managerialism and, consequently, policy, politics, democracy, and ethics, disappear.
	www.vusst.hr /ENCYCLOPAEDIA/managerialism.htm (2433 words)

	Feature - What is Economic Rationalism? - Gregory Whitwell
		In their most basic form, economic rationalist views simply hold that, generally speaking, markets usually provide more satisfying answers to questions of choice, consumer preference and so on—and in doing so, provide a more rapidly advancing level of total well-being for all concerned—than decisions by diktat, whether those be by politicians, bureaucrats or controllers generally.
		Economic rationalism, its protagonists argue, is not about the adoption of a laissez-faire approach.
		Economic rationalists insist that the public sector tends by nature to be inefficient, in part because it is not subject to the market disciplines which the private sector faces.
	www.abc.net.au /money/currency/features/feat11.htm (1305 words)

	econrat99
		By the 1980s, economic rationalists had largely adopted the microeconomic views of the Chicago school, rejecting ideas of market failure in favour of the belief that the simple neoclassical model of perfect competition was a good description of the economy, or would be in the absence of undesirable government intervention.
		However, while those who identified themselves as opponents of economic rationalism agreed that economic rationalism involved strict opposition to government intervention and a belief in the inherent superiority of private enterprise, there was disagreement among those who regarded themselves as economic rationalists.
		In part, this change arose because economic rationalists, who now dominated the main economic policy-making institutions, found it less necessary to justify their views in public debate, and therefore less useful to identify themselves as members of a school of thought.
	www.uq.edu.au /economics/johnquiggin/JournalArticles99/econrat99.html (1132 words)

	ECONOMIC RATIONALISM AND THE SCHOLARLY CULTURE
		Andrew Norton, a self-proclaimed economic rationalist, brings in something of this ideological dimension: economic rationalism is 'a large intellectual and political movement, encompassing a wide variety of views favouring a greater role for markets and a reduced role for government'.
		The language of economics is increasingly being used to obfuscate what is at state, and to rationalise or legitimise decisions which are questionable or even indefensible in plain language.
		Economic rationalism, thus broadly understood, is a discourse - a loose framework of thinking, something more untidy, less well-defined than an ideology - but one which favours a certain ideology, variously described as neo-liberal, neo-conservative, New Right, or perhaps the ideology of late twentieth-century capitalism, Anglo-American model.
	www.anu.edu.au /caul/isaa/richards.htm (1643 words)

	IRRATIONAL ‘RATIONALISM’ (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		The ‘rational’ in economic rationalism comes from philosophy where it means ‘guided by reason as opposed to emotions’.
		In short ‘rational’ means without regard for humans, and economic rationalism is the policy that in the making of economic decisions, their effect on people, or the community at large, is not a ‘rational’ consideration.
		Some of you might also be wondering what’s ‘rational’ (in the sense of ‘sane, sensible, not foolish, absurd, or extreme’), about an economic policy for human beings which specifically excludes its effect on human beings from the economic equation.
	www.gwb.com.au /gwb/news/economic/210198.html (509 words)

	Democratic Humanism (3) - Know Your Dragon
		Economic rationalism is a response; it is an attempt to deal with massive changes wrought by technological change and how high speed communication has rendered political boundaries obsolete for economic policy.
		Economic rationalism may not be THE answer but at least it is an attempt to come up with AN answer.
		Economic Rationalism is about economic efficiency, dollars and profitability; not men, women and the quality of life.
	darkenchanter.net /dh03.htm (1800 words)

	The Age: Why economics can't avoid a revolution
		Economics, on the other hand, has time and time again had the need for a revolution thrust before it, and every time it has stepped back from the brink into the complacent beliefs of yesteryear.
		For example, the economic theory of how consumers behave was shown (in 1956!) to depend on two crucial assumptions: that all consumers have the same tastes, and that income has no effect on spending patterns.
		But rather than being frightened of the bogey of economic rationalism, Australians are far more entitled to laugh at it, and demand something better of their economists.
	www.debunking-economics.com /Articles/Eco_revolution_20010226.htm (811 words)

	Print Article: Economic rationalists move in on Medicare
		Because the rationalists use their little pocket model as a one-size-fits-all device for analysing the problems of all markets, whereas the health economists believe their market is very different from other markets and put most of their effort into testing the model's conclusions empirically.
		And though they do have some effect on the usage of poor families, those families aren't able to distinguish between doctor visits that are unnecessary and those vital to their health.
		Economics is meant to be about allowing the community - the political process - to determine the value questions, and then providing the community with technical advice on the most resource-efficient ways to achieve its value choices.
	www.smh.com.au /cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/articles/2003/05/11/1052591674352.html (1135 words)

	Rationalism and rationality in economics - On Line Opinion - 15/11/1999
		A little later, the term ‘economic rationalists’ was used by writers such as Watson (1979) to describe the supporters of free trade within the Labor government.
		The views of the first generation of economic rationalists were generally in the economic mainstream of the period — Keynesian in macro terms and supportive of the ‘mixed economy’ in micro terms.
		These ambiguities were exploited by some defenders of economic rationalism, such as James, Jones and Norton (1993), when their policy program came under attack during the 1989-90 recession.
	www.onlineopinion.com.au /view.asp?article=1376 (1449 words)

	ECONOMIC RATIONALISM IN MANAGING SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURE - THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE
		On summarising the impact of economic rationalism, the paper attempts to look forward at some of the changes that are occurring as a result of the institutional development.
		The rigorous approach of economic rationalism adopted in the report was in tune with the Liberal government's micro-economic reform policy.
		It was perceived as another move of economic rationalism to re-engineer the management of the state's data/information resources, particularly in the land administration and natural resources program areas.
	www.sli.unimelb.edu.au /research/publications/IPW/ERMSDI.htm (5724 words)

	ColombiaLink.com - ECONOMIC RATIONALISM - MACROECONOMICS
		Economic rationalism is an Australian term in macroeconomics, applicable to the economic policy of many governments around the world, in particular during the 1980s.
		Economic rationalism is economic policy without social moral consideration, or "the view that commercial activity...
		Economic rationalism (http://ecocomm.anu.edu.au/quiggin/JournalArticles97/Econrat97.html), John Quiggin, Professor of Economics, James Cook University, Published as: Quiggin, J.
	www.colombialink.com /01_INDEX/index_finanzas_eng/economic_rationalism.html (234 words)

	The Currency Lad: The Future Of Economic Rationalism (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		This is a somewhat amazing situation because economic rationalism has had to beat against the winds of abuse generated by every noisy interest group in the nation.
		Consequently any party that put up economically rational (ER) policies was immediatey subjected to a thunderstorm of criticism from socialists and conservatives, and also from the interest groups including the trade unions and the protected industries.
		Fraser came with the image of a hard man, reader of Ayn Rand etc but raised tariffs, blocked the dries and worst of all discredited ER because the poor economic performance of his administration was widely perceived as a failure of ER while in fact the ER agenda was not even attempted.
	thecurrencylad.blogspot.com /2004/10/future-of-economic-rationalism.html (565 words)

	What Price Australia? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		It works towards the point of recognition that, economic rationalism has failed in its endeavours because; it fails to recognise its own limitations and because it places little or no value on the essential moral, social, environmental and ethical components that form the central core of a truly human society.
		This work displays that a society which is "ruled" by a "faith" in economics is unlikely to be one which actually meets the needs, concerns and requirements of its citizens because the so-called wealth it generates does not contribute to the long term health and well being of the populous as a whole.
		In chapter 16 of 'Beyond the Market...' some alternatives to economic rationalism are brought into clearer focus, it presents a plan for a 'redistribution and redesign of the workplace'(Rees and Rodley :223) which could move towards 'the right to the dignity of work' being 'a basic human right for all citizens'(Rees and Rodley :222).
	users.senet.com.au /~fortuna/barrys/wprice.htm (3067 words)

	VICTORIA, BRACKS AND KENNETT, SOME LESSONS FOR THE LIBERAL PARTY
		Economic rationalists are often criticized for putting too much focus on maximizing material wealth to the detriment of other "real life" concerns such as looking after the poor or the environment.
		Because the 1990s produced a veritable onslaught on economic rationalism, it is pertinent to examine major economic developments in the decade, taking 1992-93 as the starting point and 2000-01 as the end point.
		The support by economic rationalists for minimum government intervention also reflects a view that, in a modern society with relatively high degree of education, individuals should be relatively free to pursue their own interests and should be better able to look after themselves.
	www.ipe.net.au /ECONRATNov01.HTML (3001 words)

	IA 34 Michael in a Muddle (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		As with Economic Rationalism in Canberra, a survey is central to the new book, but this time not of the bureaucrats who implemented economic reform, but the middle Australians who experienced it.
		Otherwise, his economic and moral case against the economic reform programme collapses, since it cannot be blamed for things that did not happen or that economic reform did not cause, even if large numbers of people believe otherwise.
		Pusey has been criticised for his nonsense definition of economic rationalism since he started using it in 1991, but he will neither accept assurances that nobody believes that markets are fit for all purposes, nor provide evidence that anybody believes it in principle or has followed it in practice.
	www.cis.org.au /IssueAnalysis/ia34/ia34.htm (4484 words)

	ECONOMIC RATIONALISM
		Economic rationalists support the objective of monetary policy as being to keep inflation low but they disagree about the timing and extent of changes in interest rates that is needed to achieve that.
		Yet it is ironic that economic rationalists are sometimes characterised as "right wing" or even "fascist" while those who support more government and more restrictions on individual freedom often somehow manage to get away with portraying themselves as the good guys who are the only true democrats.
		Economic rationalists point out that the proportion of the population receiving benefits seems to be on a continuing upward path and that this is occurring even though living standards are increasing, which should logically cause the proportion needing benefits to be falling.
	www.ipe.net.au /BrightonRotary.htm (4988 words)

	Comment: Economic policy: how they got it wrong - 15 December 2001
		Economic policy should be a means to an end, with the end being the values of society.
		Economic rationalism (ER) is basically a belief, or an article of faith, that the markets - unhindered and unregulated - are the best way to operate the economy and will produce the best outcomes for the nation as a whole.
		In the context of the inevitable trade-off between economic efficiency and equity, ER is based on the belief that equity and fairness is a minor argument when compared to the benefits of improved efficiency.
	www.newsweekly.com.au /articles/2001dec15_er.html (1375 words)

	Quadrant Magazine
		While the economic rationalists should take a more “social” view of the world, it is also necessary to engage them on their own terms of “market failure” and the like.
		Their descriptions of economic rationalism and recent economic and social trends are based on theory, and not on empirical research.
		Her description of economic rationalism is primarily based on its enemies’ assumptions, not on economic rationalists’ actual views.
	www.quadrant.org.au /php/archive_details_list.php?article_id=402 (1821 words)

	John Quiggin » Blog Archive » Economic rationalism
		My Wednesday post on the term ‘rational’ has brought forward some discussion of the term ‘economic rationalism’, which is now most commonly used in a pejorative.
		On the one hand, we have economic reasoning (including the presumptions of those who presume that particular species of this reasoning is the only permissable reasoning); on the other hand, we have the specific history of the popular Australian movement against economic rationalism; which has led to the term’s pejorative connotations.
		Empiricism and Rationalism are not themselves substantive doctrines, but rather locii of similar attitudes and positions, so the demarcation is a bit “fuzzy”.
	johnquiggin.com /index.php?p=1459 (2168 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		Globalisation may be seen as the application, in particular nation societies, of a neo-liberal 'economic rationalism' which assumes: (a) that markets offer, at least in principle, the most reliable means of setting values on all goods, and (b) that economies and markets can always, in principle, deliver better outcomes than states, governments and the law.
		1.4 an experience of enormous change without rewards as forced structural economic adjustment has coincided with stagnating or falling standards of living for most of the population and produced the first strong economic recovery in living memory in which few, or none, of the rewards have been shared with the broad majority of the population.
		Aggressive and wide ranging programs of economic 'reform' have followed a perverse economic logic that has set economic growth, and even increases in standard of living, in contradiction both to subjective wellbeing and to objective quality of life.
	www.toda.org /Default.aspx?PageID=245 (1603 words)

	ipedia.com: Macroeconomics Article (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		One of the challenges of economics has been a struggle to reconcile macroeconomic and microeconomic models.
		Further, it does not wish to combat inflation or deflation by means of active demand management as in Keynesian economics, but by means of monetary policy rules, such as keeping the rate of growth of the money supply constant over time.
		Supply-side economics, which deliniates quite clearly on the role of monetary policy and fiscal policy.
	www.ipedia.com /macroeconomics_1.html (843 words)

	ECONOMIC RATIONALISM HAS NOT FAILED. (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-20)
		You must be assuming a) that the policies were intended and designed to meet the needs of people and the environment, b) that those framing and implementing them are bungling idiots because their strategies somehow always end up devastating the lives of most people and the ecosystems of the planet.
		Structural Adjustment Packages, the rules of the World Trade Organisation, the Multilateral Agreement on Investment proposals, and the economic rationalist philosophy in general are simply the arrangements which suit the big corporations and banks (and their well paid lackeys who do the technical, legal and managerial work).
		The fact is that conventional economic strategies are designed to and succeed brilliantly in delivering most of and an increasing proportion of the world's wealth to the rich few.
	www.arts.unsw.edu.au /tsw/D03EcRatHsNtFaild.html (492 words)

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