Capitalism: critics and champions
| Author | Prakash Loungani |
| Position | IMF, External Relations Department |
| Pages | 327-328 |
Page 327
Did Adam Smith launch the antiglobalization movement? Not quite, though he and many of capitalism's other staunch supporters have also been its most perceptive critics, according to Jerry Muller, a professor of history at Catholic University. The inaugural IMF Book Forum, held on September 9, featured a presentation by Muller based on his book The Mind and the Market: Capitalism in Modern European Thought. Ann Florini of the Brookings Institution and Johan Norberg, author of In Defense of Global Capitalism, related the themes of Muller's book to the concerns of today's antiglobalization movement.
There is "a remarkable recurrence of fears, laments, and condemnations" when contemporary arguments against capitalism are compared with ones stretching back over 250 years,Muller said. The most fundamental condemnation of capitalism is its championing of the pursuit of self-interest. The "idea that collective good can arise from the pursuit of self-interest is not only counterintuitive to most people but morally scandalous," he said.
Even Voltaire's defense of economic self-interest was grounded in his belief that it was a less dangerous pursuit than other goals, such as religious zealotry.Voltaire's position is evident, according to Muller, in his description of the London stock exchange as "a place more respectable than many a court.You will see assembled representatives of every nation for the benefit of mankind.Here, the Jew, the Mohametan, and the Christian deal with one another as if they were of the same religion, and reserve the name ‘infidel' for those who go bankrupt."
The Wealth of Nations,Muller said, was to show how self-interest could be channeled to achieve the collective good. Smith argued that properly structured markets would lead to universal opulence by providing competition and spurring greater productivity. Smith did not assume that markets would be naturally competitive. In fact,Muller noted, he argued that producers and merchants would try to restrain competition, internally and externally, through protectionist measures. "One leitmotif of The Wealth of Nations, then, might be called saving capitalism from the capitalists," he said.
Muller noted two other recurring fears about capitalism. One is that the...
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