The Contradictory Imperatives of Welfare and Economic Policy in the Mixed Economy

Abstract

The abstract basis of the polity-economy relation is examined in order to comprehend the current economic limitations upon feasible politics. It is argued that contemporary mixed-economies have a deontological (rights/obligations based) rather than a consequentialist (outcomes-based) legitimation, expressing the conflict between the imperatives of the market-regulated capitalist economy and free will. Yet the state has to be concerned with the right to the particular existence of individuals, neglected by the logic of the economy. The mixed economy is thus shown to he contradictory, and policy to be concerned with the management of the manifestations of contradiction that cannot he overcome without radical social transformation. The contradictions of economic and social policy are shown to manifest the domination of the value form over the effective allocation of resources to the production and distribution of useful objects in the capitalist economy. Oft alluded to but rarely argued for, both the assumption of the separation of polity and economy and the cyclical development of policy over time can then be accounted for. The paper explains the inadequacies of rational choice theories of policy with a narrowly instrumental view of human agency—both the ‘new’ welfare economics and the ‘new political economy’.