House of Paine

ace-moglu

   nice neo-lib
              fable 

by jb clark award winner 


==================================


i quote 

  "economic institutions encouraging
            economic growth
emerge 

        when political institutions

   1) allocate power to groups
 with interests in
   
            BROAD BASED PROPERTY RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT

  2)  create effective constraints on power-holders



  3) minimize rents to be captured by power holders "



-------------------------------------------

SO WHATS THE MODEL LIKE ?

  CIRCULAR OF COURSE 


    or is it ....?

---------------------

the spectre returns 
   part x
------------------------


notes on KM 's influence


now that his spectre is buried under the rubble
of the berlin wall.....

is it safe in  e-con-com academe  
  to echo his social models  ??????


 klass struggle as the motor of history...


the state as an instrument of klass power ......


obviously these fellahs 
 were  not a  date-able pair 

            during the  kold war
      
      burger prime time  
this pair  traveled around in a .....cage 


today
after all his  parties are over

can  his class struggle model

pass  right thru the  ivy halls door check?



seems so

 just  so long as he uses

 an alias 


" hni
 i'm 
 mr de jure  power
  and
he's 
      mr  de facto power

we're hardly friends 

 but 


  we won't cause a fight tonite ... 



yes madamoiselle 
    today

after the wall fall 

the  klass clash two 
 can 
  come to the  academic ball 


  dressed as
   blobs of course 
             
  well larded imps

and even admit while dancing cheek to cheek
with some first rate academic chickee

  "  he's  
   the  social conflictor " 

and 

" i'm... 
     the  ultimate extractor "
---------------------------------------

turning to ace's opus .... 

 one quickly notices 
that despite
  the  snappy attack
    on economism
embedded in  it all

its the mild slow gradual tales 

slow mobilizations 

the vague ness of incremental progression 
and most off

the  free burger beau ideal 
of
secure  private possesion 
liberty of 
   productive and commercial enterprise
 and on top
   a state 
tamed by powerful pop-rep body
  produced 
   out of a  broad  broad broader franchise 

these are the  heros of ace's 
                     500 year saga 
----------------------------

random thoughts ....



the attempt to build
  "a serious" 
       set
  of functional relationships
     between
   a  basic real life system
  of commodity  production

and its  super structure :     
the legal-political 
contivences 
raised above this market  system 


wow in academe 
have its actors
 turn out to be  economic classes
even by other names and 
cloaked in shapeless disguise....

as a scientific   model ....


wow 

 econ -com
   " institutions "
  are able to change 
both the rate and direction 
                     of expansion


wow 


and as these econ -com institutions 
are altered 
significant group inpacts
     on resources shares  may vary

and  differing share consequences
may lead to a tussle for power 
  at the higher level of political instsitutions ....


shit 
this  marx as told by aesop 


the  de facto econ-com  institutions
are a variable 

which themselves are 
 a function  of political institutions
aka "the state "

the ultimate power 
struugle over the shape of political institutions 

is over future resource shares

yes
 political institutions
shape  share relationships 

-----------------

why ace is not afraid of his own model???



being a  proponent
of broadly based  growth 

he figures 
 there is never too much freedom 
or
 too many market players 


and this has an implied   belief
in these yieldings 
   
 more democracy yields more property protection yields 
  more  growth yields more development 


  he has trouble contrasting good elite actions vs bad elite actions in a sequence that obviuosly cause history to march in its usual left right left step by step fashion



the neutral terms amuse 


economic classes are named in all their  particulars 
but not called classes

the spuer structure is fragments into institutions 
elites are best labeled  groups holding legal power 


power itself

like utility else where
is here measureable quantity that builds up in various pans and the scales register the shifts prehaps with sudden bursts of  the final wheel
because of an everelaborating  gearing system 


concentrated powerr leads to the usual problems

large poor groups face the usual collective action hump


groups can't have faith in each other
self interest leads to tit for tat class relations

the state's monopoly on power is only on legitimate power 

legitemacy has certain mulitpilcatuive effects on the rsaw power inherent in a class's eco  share 

the state can act as an extractor directly
or a facilitater of it indirectly 
by its rules 




not bad one awaits the moment 
  sudden ghastly results
  that this course  leads to
         frightens ace off his clarity even further


my wonderment is how many big chunks of treees a guy like this can apprehend 
with out the total gestalt choking him 


        one of the many
  progressive  out comes

of marx is dead

 is this rediscovery of proto marxian notions

and how well they fit

the historical record  

the words power and rents 
broad based do a great deal of heavy lifting 
off stage 

or at best
they struggle amongst themselves
    like dark in distinct shapes clashing by night 


here's a touch


the de facto winners of a power struggle
intstitutionalize their advantages if and when they can

the state is the legitimized mechanism of the winners rent flow rig


but what of laisez faire?

thats when the spontaneous rsults of economic institutions favor
 adequately the winners 

  the state system "influences future de jure political power moves "

thru one groups agents being in the executive offices of state force 



economic preferences lead to clashes

because 

a's gain is usually z's loss 


when and ifthis conflict of outcome choices arise

a win win mostly isn't enforceable

why ? cause efficency and distribution can not be seperated 

enforcement requires a neutral third party state
another kold war fantasy

to ace the state is always a contending party so .....

de jures vs de factos 

as the rival rent seekers
  line up 
thosein control 
  of the  state have
              the advantage

remember pinochet proves

the state can brake its own rules ....

power grows out of resources 

the distribution of resources

more resopurces leads to more power

because its 
interest opposers 
  must leap from  collective inertia
into  co ordinated action
only then 
once this internal  barrier  to action


within the shifting tides of the power balance 

periods of dual power

and civil war are inherent possibilities 

political institutions are durable
because they have a ready organized force at hand 
its maintenece cost
 often billed to the oppressed and super exploited 

because they over come the mobilization problem 
of a dispersed opposer group 

colective action:
          a hard hill to climb

an old kold war social democratic fantasy  

a general theory of optimal state extractions

would notice revenue sources that least effect growth 

secure property rights is hardly the lasso that ropes this mission

  enclosures were massive violations of use rights
and propery rights

but the pro growth way
was to favor thew interests opf the big land holders

which means not boraden opportunity but narrow it

the crop price board set ups worked pro growth
only when a compact gbig grower group
could force up prices paid

again broader  bases are not pro growth 

 peasnt vote democracy 
  would have prevented enclosure one suspects 
on the other hand
pro growth 
fights  over cash crop pricesin ghana by the peon farmers
 would have thretened industrialization

by the way what about the five year plan

covered indirectly by the korean chaesol story 

a stage exists where stalinoid systems might work

if corruption is prevented
and motivation of the ranks maintained 

up shot
by picking and choosing his spots

the parable of growth gets a pro liberal market twist
 a full  disclosure of her contradictory couse by cleo   wouldn't validate  
that would 

mass voter enfranchisement

elites figure in the long run

forcin em
 ain't so  cost effective
                     as foolin em


and forced raw ed like anti booze campaigns

are a burger elite scam