the market and the polis

what is the polis?

The greek word for “city state”

→used as the name for stones model of political society

→small enought to have very simple forms of organisation, yet large enough to embody the essential elements of politics

Why does Stone build her model of political society against the market model?

Because market thinking dominates today's policy debates

→ comparing the two models shows how market thinking distorts political life

How does Stone define a market?

A social system in which individuals pursue their own welfare by exchanging things with others whenever trades are mutually beneficial

What is the Robinson Crusoe illustration, and what does it show?

Two people alone on an island trade coconuts and seafood to be better off; but trading is optional, since each could just produce everything alone

→fun fact Stone adds: the "real" Crusoe rescued tools from his shipwreck, such as guns, cables and nails, so he was not as alone and self-sufficient as the story suggests

How do market participants behave, per the market model?

• They compete for scarce resources

• try to acquire things at the least possible cost

• convert raw materials into more valuable things to sell at the highest possible price

What does "self-interest" mean in the market model?

• One's own welfare, however each person defines it →attention:not the same as acting "selfishly" since it might include the well-being of family and friends →However:in practice most market models ignore everything except the individual's own interest >Even though self-interest could theoretically include the well-being of others (family, friends), the standard market models in the end only count the individual's own benefit, and nothing else.

What outcome does market competition supposedly produce?

• The competitive drive to maximize self-interest stimulates people to be resourceful, creative, and clever

• competition raises the level of economic welfare of society as a whole

What is Stone's method for building the polis model?

She starts from the market model and modifies its features into political ones, feature by feature

Why must community be the starting point of the polis model?

Because politics and policy are only possible inside communities

→ in Stone's words: public policy means a community acting together to reach its goals, not just a collection of individuals

How can public policy be "a community acting as a community" if communities are full of conflict?

Stone keeps the claim even under two objections:

(1) communities almost always disagree about who belongs and what the shared goals should be

(2) in the end every communal goal still has to be carried out by individual people

What does the market assume that the polis cannot?

• In the market, only individuals exist and only they have goals

• the polis must assume collective will and collective effort

How do we know collective intention exists if it cannot be defined?

• We know it intuitively: societies behave as if they had one, our political language assumes it →"Democrats want...", "The administration is trying..." →everyone knows the feeling of group consensus

consensus

feeling of collective will

→recognized as surely (and sometimes mistakenly) as hunger

Why is membership the primary political issue?

Because membership definitions and rules determine who is allowed to participate in community activities and who is governed by community rules and authority

Give formal and informal mechanisms of membership inclusion/exclusion.

Formal: nation-state citizenship rules, private-club qualifications, religious admission rituals

informal: racial discrimination in selling and renting homes, mortgage lending, and sheer harassment

What does the Arizona 2010 law illustrate?

• Anti-immigrant sentiment produced membership policies: police must investigate the immigration status of anybody they stop whom they suspect might be an illegal immigrant →it raises fears of prejudice based on looks and accents and creates state vs. federal tension over who enforces U.S. membership policy

What is the difference between political and cultural community?

• political community : →is a group living under the same political rules and structure of governance

• cultural community →shares a culture and draws identities from shared language, history, and traditions; most nations' political communities include diverse cultural communities

What is the profound dilemma cultural diversity creates for policy politics?

How to integrate several cultural communities into a single political community without destroying their identity and integrity

Why can issues like bilingual education or interracial adoption not be understood as individual self-interest?

• Policies like bilingual education and interracial adoption are not merely about personal preference or individual gain →Instead, they involve minority cultural groups fighting to preserve their distinct language history, and traditions so they are not absorbed and erased by the dominant culture

• This creates a fundamental conflict where the survival of the group as a whole clashes with the rights or desires of individual members.

What is Europe's "integration policy" rubric, and what is Stone's Danish example?

• Integration focuses on what values and behaviors immigrants must espouse to become citizens →Denmark requires a Danish-language test that many Danes might not pass, and a declaration of support for gender equality

What transforms a collection of individuals into a community?

• Mutual aid among members → sharing burdens and bounty binds people together (more than legal definitions of who is in and out)

What examples of mutual aid does Stone give?

• Immigrants establishing mutual aid societies to pool resources for culturally acceptable funerals, sickness and life insurance, and business credit

• non-monetary help such as sharing child care and helping maintain homes and neighborhoods

What is mutual aid in Stone's terms?

A kind of social insurance, possibly the strongest bond holding individuals together as a community

Key contrast: insurance in the market vs. the polis?

In the market: insurance is a financial product firms sell for profit and buyers purchase for economic security

in the polis:mutual aid is a good people create collectively to protect each other and their community

What does Stone claim motivates human behavior in the polis?

Sharing, caring, and maintaining relationships are at least as strong motivators as autonomy, competition, and promotion of one's separate self-interests

What does "altruism" mean according to Stone?

• Acting to benefit others rather than oneself →everyday forms: taking care of children, treating the sick, helping coworkers, volunteering as a tutor or fix-it person

Why does the rationality paradigm make altruism "impossible" or invisible?

• It assumes fundamentally self-interested humans →many social scientists say actions count as altruistic only if one receives absolutely no benefit, or even makes a sacrifice →Hobbes: "No man giveth but with intention of good to himself"

What is the "paradox of altruism"?

• People who help others almost always get psychic rewards

• "When you help other people, you get more than you give" →so by the strict definition no one is ever purely altruistic; in the polis both motives coexist, and altruism can be just as fierce as self-interest.