*** JEAN TIROLE: Economie du bien commun. Presses universitaires de France (6 av. Reille, F-75014 Paris Cedex 14. Tel: (33-1) 58103192 – Email: contact@puf.com – Internet: http://www.puf.com ). 2016, 639 pp. €18. ISBN 978-2-13-072996-9.
To help initiate oneself into economics or deepen one’s knowledge of the subject with the help of a 2014 Nobel prize-winner is indeed a privilege. It is particularly fortuitous given that this writer is the chair of the renowned Toulouse School of Economics and in this book he does not adopt the posture of some remote Mandarin spouting forth his version of the truth as if it were an infallibility. Instead, his interpretation is both measured and modest and he provides his readers with “a tool to ask questions” that translates “his personal vision of economics as a science” and which seeks to make the world a better place. Therefore, it is, from the outset, an act of faith of the science he serves and in keeping with his credo that, “the economy is neither at the service of private property or individual interests or those who want to use the state to impose their values or for their own interests to prevail. It covers the entire market and the whole state. The economy is at the service of the common good”. This is all very well and good, despite the fact that the very notion of the “common good” is not equivocal and that in order to define it, there is, at least in part, the need for some sort of value judgement. The author therefore explains in his forward that, “the attempt to locate what constitutes the common good is largely through the construction of institutions that seek to reconcile and develop as much as possible both the individual and general interest” and in this perspective, the market economy is not an end in itself but simply an instrument that is often “far from perfect”. The author therefore invites the reader to look at the economy by “removing the veil of ignorance” linked to one’s place in society but which would in fact require an approach that would almost involve going back to square one and where caution and moderation would be the watchwords.
The book is based around five major themes. The first involves the relationship between society and the economy as a discipline and paradigm, as well as the position of the economist themselves. The author preachers humility and points out that economists are just ordinary men and women “whose reasoning is often based on the appearances and belief systems” that they adhere to and feel. With regard to the morality of the market, he points out that the feeling of indignation can be useful but also “a bad advisor” because it has all too often in the past led to the “affirmation of individual preferences to the disadvantage of the freedom of others”. He also gets to grips with concerns relating to the loss of social ties and the development of inequality in the market economy. The second theme focuses on the profession of economist and begins with their role and “city”. It contains a number of measured insights that help unravel the different complexities and involve the author analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the institutional framework in the economy, such is the way in which the state and business interact. The fourth theme looks at the four major macroeconomic challenges at the heart of current concerns, such as the climate, unemployment, the euro and finance. In the fifth and final, “industrial challenge”, a raft of different but essential economic questions are tackled and which affect everyday life and future of society. These involve competition and industrial policy, the digital revolution, innovation and sectoral regulation.
For connoisseurs, the chapter by Jean Tirole entitled “Europe at the crossroads” merits particular attention. In it he explains “the origins of the Euro crisis” and points out the limitations of the “Maastrichtian approach” that failed to apply the stability and growth pact and the fact that there is no “magical statistic relating to sustainability of national debt”. He takes to task Greek leaders for their calamitous management of their country but also their European counterparts, which “have a limited vision of the future of the Eurozone” and refuse to admit that Greek recovery is also restrained by “the extraordinary recession” experienced by the country. In reply to those who are tempted to win some time, he explains that “The troika cannot continue to codirect the country over a 30 year period” and that the European Central Bank should not be “obliged to provide permanent support to countries in difficulty under the pretext that this solidarity is more difficult to obtain from parliaments than an unelected body” and that “its independence is indispensable” if a compromise is going to be possible. What option should therefore be advocated? He identifies two possibilities. Either an “improved Maastricht option” and the introduction of an independent European budgetary council or the “option of federalism” which, would involved sharing the most significant risks but in these times of reinvigorated sovereignty this does not appear to be on the cards, even though it would only involve promoting a European level of equalisation mechanisms in member states. He therefore concludes by “rehabilitating the European idea” and convincing the sceptics that we cannot at the same time “highlight sovereignty but demand greater risk sharing”. This is, as he explains, “The very root of the problem”… Michel Theys
*** THEODOROS LIANOS: Prospérité sans croissance. Editions Gutenberg (37 rue Didotou, GR-10680 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3642003 – fax: 3642030 – Email: info@dardanosnet.gr). 2016,197 pp. €8. ISBN 978-960-01-1829-2.
By giving in to the temptations of overconsumption and abandoning ourselves to over population, humanity will disappear. In this book, an emeritus professor at the University of Economics in Athens explains why and how to prepare for this disaster. He explains that the Earth’s resources are exhausted and that global production will soon experience lower growth rates than population growth, which will lead to a per capita reduction in GDP, which is likely to occur around 2037. In his view, the analysis of current data suggests that the world’s population, which currently stands at 7.5 million people, should be reduced to around… 3 billion. This economist also teaches at the University of California (Davis) and a number of other US universities and, as well as editing the magazine South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics. He believes that a stable population at this level would enable present and future generations to enjoy a sufficient lifestyle by preserving the planet’s natural resources. In this way, it would be possible to reach a level of economic equilibrium by ensuring prosperity without growth. To reduce and stabilise the population at the required level, the author proposes the creation of a global system that would bestow a number of procreation rights. (AKa)
*** CHARIS VLADOS: La dynamique de la mondialisation et les entreprises en Grèce. Editions Kritiki (4 rue Papadiamantopoulou, GR-11528 Athens. Tel. (30-210) 8211811 – fax: 8211026 – Email: biblia@kritiki.gr – Internet: http://www.kritiki.gr ). 2016, 344 pp. €12.99. ISBN 978-960-218-966-5.
Everything at the beginning of the 21stcentury suggests that the Greek economy and society in conjunction with the socio-economics of the country are at a crossroads. Many of the old certainties are collapsing. Professor Charis Vlados is currently a lecturer at the Department of Economic Relations and International Development at the Democratic University of Thrace and has previously collaborated with different research centres and worked as a managing consultant in Greece and abroad. In this publication, he explains that the dynamic of globalisation is still continuing to significantly but surreptitiously and quietly transform the entire socio-economic structure of Greece. This involves companies that are constantly in search of an efficient synthesis in terms of strategic, technological and administrative capacity, based on the overriding premise that their competitive survival depends on this in the world of globalisation. Nonetheless, according to the author, the great majority of Greek citizens remain indifferent to this evolution and continue to harbour two pernicious simplifications of this process: either globalisation will herald in heaven on earth or come, on the contrary, as the harbinger of hell. The most critical challenge therefore involves getting Greek citizens to look at the situation objectively and without being duped. The author believes that globalisation can, subject to certain conditions, be a powerful force for overcoming the chronic pathological rigidities and agents of Greek society by way of a positive and powerful socio-economic force for progress emanating from and in the country. (AKa)
*** GIORGOS METAXAS: Crise? Editions I Ekdoseis ton Synadelfwn (30 rue Kallidromiou, GR-11473 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3818840 – Email: syneditions@gmail.com - Internet: ekdoseisynadelfwn.wordpress.com. 2016, 280 pp. €15. ISBN 978-960-9797-56-6.
According to the author, this book is the fruit of a lengthy gestation period characterised by a number of rewrites. Giorgos Metaxas, The author, and editor of several left-wing magazines, uses this book to examine the difficult question of politically correct terminology prevailing in the 21st century economy compared to more familiar categories that are no less difficult to understand for others. It involved the terminology used in the Marxist approach, the world of work and different struggles. He devotes two sections of his publication on the crisis that originated in the US and in its most extreme form in Greece, by particularly highlighting empirical statistical data, which should, nonetheless, he warns, be examined with caution. The author seeks to avoid economist centrist interpretations and presents and analyses the shape the restructuring of social relations took and which led to the global crisis of 2007 and effectively fed into this crisis. He also provides a sociological analysis of Greek society from the end of the dictatorship (1974) to the present day. By way of this empirical research, he subsequently intends to explain how the a crisis of over-accumulation arose and uses data on production and the movement of products to this end. Giorgos Metaxas admits that this work was indeed a learning and development process for him and made him radically question a number of his previously held certainties. He hopes that by admitting these errors he will help prevent his readers making the same ones. His book was conceived as a way of developing debate and helping us question all the different certainties we hold. (AKa)
*** KATARZYNA METELSKA-SZANIAWSKA: Economic Effects of Post-Socialist Constitutions 25 Years from the outset of Transition. The Constitutional Political Economy Approach. Peter Lang (42-50 Eschborner Landstraße, D-60489 Francfort. Tel: (49-69) 780700 – fax: 78070550 – Email: frankfurt@peterlang.com – Internet: http://www.peterlang.com “Polish Studies in Economics”, No. 7. 2016, 193 pp. €51.40, £41, $66.95. ISBN 978-3-631-66953-2.
Katarzyna Metelska-Szaniawska is a lecturer in economic sciences at the University of Warsaw, as well as specialist in Constitutional Political Economy, a discipline that perceives constitutions as mechanisms but help transform the promises of political leaders into credible commitments. This work was undertaken to verify the experiences of post-socialist countries during the transition period began 25 years ago in 1989. The author also sought to demonstrate how the constitutional solutions adopted by the former countries in Eastern Europe, as in Asia, constituted an appropriate framework for implementing the economic reforms undertaken in these countries. To this end, she sought to go beyond the customary shortcomings and deficiencies of empirical models and technical analysis by developing a new statistical approach or “synthetic control method”. In the first chapter of this book predominantly aimed at economists, the Vice-President of the European Association of Law and Economics undertakes a meticulous presentation of the theoretical nexus between constitutional rules and economic policy making that serve as a red line throughout this endeavour. After having presented the most appropriate information in a similar way on the post-socialist constitutions, her third chapter focuses on the effects in theory in the context of privatisation, liberalisation and business restructuring in the countries observed. The following chapter seeks to provide a second verification of the results obtained by submitting them to the synthetic control method, which she argues allows it to overcome several deficiencies detected in previous analyses and obtain a vision that is at the same time more comprehensive and accurate on each of the countries examined. Finally, in the fifth chapter, the author provides even more weight to the role played by the constitutional framework in economic policy by incorporating into the analysis insights offered by an evolutionary perspective on politics and policy making. This undertaking ultimately provides a new and valuable insight into the constitutional economy. (PBo)