SOCIAL RULES AND AGREEMENTS BESIDES THE 'INVISIBLE HAND'

摘要

Recently an old debate amongst scholars of economics and of other social sciences has been revived: that between supporters of the free market and supporters of public regulation of economic activity, the aims being specifically that of efficiency according to the former group, and development, stability and social justice for the latter. In this paper we consider Carlo Beretta's analysis, which by means of a historical and theoretical method, gives evidence of the limits of the neoclassical approach, and emphasizes the importance of social rules and agreements, i.e. the need for the intervention of collective institutions in order to reach the fundamental goals of social and economic policy.