People for People English

How Economic Individualism leads to Anarchy. And a possible Way Out

In Thomas Hobbes’ (1588-1679) prominent state of nature every individual fights against all other individuals. Each individual does so to survive: When I kill my neighbor he can no more steal my belongings or kill me, I am consequently safer now. Hobbes’ state of nature is an individualism-based condition of anarchy: Neither laws nor governments nor any form of contracts exist. His ultimate objective is to find ways to leave or avoid this condition.

 

The individualistic concept was new then and characterizes many schools of thought in the modern period. Among others, the neoclassical theories in economic sciences of the 20th century generally rely on the methodological individualism. Each individual aims to rationally maximize its utility accordingly.

Through neoliberal politics these theories were implemented in many countries in the last 30 years: The transfer of theoretical concepts like the methodological individualism was essentially (although not exclusively) transferred and supported by such politics into the real world. Today, they structure to large parts the perception of how the economy functions and what it is in reality. This thinking is also based on competition because others are understood as (potential) competitors. The assumption of this politics of deregulation was that market-ruled competition alone establishes the most effective and efficient solutions.

 

Yet, individualism (as also competition) is not bad per se. Every one of us is an individual and it is nothing else than self-evident that individual rights need to be protected. But, the methodological individualism as the one of economic provenience was implemented at the cost of the community. In Switzerland e.g. voluntary community work is strongly decreasing (e.g. there are less football coaches for children). People are too busy with their individual job career and want to score (financially) in their personal competitive game.

 

The strong individualism of today may be seen as a kind of a global state of nature. Some examples: The exploitation of workers and local communities by transnational corporations is fostered by political deregulation and missing cooperative global governance structures: Responsibility is left often to individual managers; because of removing or not establishing regulation it is often made easy for managers of firms to enrich themselves excessively. Conversely, single individuals can trigger shitstorms against firms by posting individually declared violations of political correctness in the social media. And, as mentioned, voluntary community work is decreasing. The neoliberal politics of deregulation thus led at least partly to conditions which for Hobbes were imperative to leave in place.

 

A possible way to balance the corrosive consequences of such overreaching (economic) individualism on communities is that we, the civil society, begin rebuilding voluntary, non-market based cooperation between us citizens. A stronger togetherness between neighbors and friends etc. can foster the creation of values that provide a whole society meaning and vision. The economy can rediscover its role in and for society by cooperating more seriously with and for stakeholders.

 

Of course humans are competition-oriented individuals but they are also cooperative and social beings needing mutual value and meanings. The sociologist Richard Sennett and communitarianists often write about the importance of cooperation and togetherness in civil societies. And the stakeholder theory explains the advantages and appropriateness of an economy understanding itself more as a part of society and related to stakeholders.

 

 

Claude Meier