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Market, State, and Society as Codes of Moral Obligation

Alan Wolfe

Department of Sociology, Queens College, Flushing, NY 11367

Economics, political science, and sociology are, in this paper, understood to be not only scientific but also moral languages. An economic approach to moral obligation emphasizes that obligations to the self automatically. cover obligations to others A political approach, by contrast, argues that some kind of centralized coercive authority is necessary so that people will carry out their obligations to each other satisfactorily Sociology has always understood itself in opposition to both the market and the state, but it has never been clear about its alternative. Many of the classical thinkers in the sociological tradition wished to preserve both modernity (in the form of markets and states) and morality (in the form of strongly inscribed norms and community obligations) This balance is best resolved by emphasizing morality as a learning process requiring 'civil society' - not as an end in itself, but as a place in which the learning of moral obligation can be carried out.

Acta Sociologica, Vol. 32, No. 3, 221-236 (1989)
DOI: 10.1177/000169938903200302
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