Marc Tool and SVP part 2

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We can further examine Marc Tool's social value principle by looking at the book edited by Charles M.A. Clark in 1995 in honor of Tool entitled, "Institutional Economics and the Social value Theory".  Tool wrote about social value principle in several places but most importantly in his Discretionary Economy in 1979.  

As outlined by William Dugger in the book honoring Tool in 1995, Dugger argued that Tool had moved the field beyond the concerns of the institutionalist Clarence Ayres and his focus on the importance of technology in human society in the 1940’s and 1950’s.   Both Ayres and Tool think about the Veblenian dichotomy of instrumental knowledge versus ceremonial knowledge. Ayres, as argued by Dugger, was focused on how human innovation and technological improvements will help move us past ceremonial or unproductive parts of human society.  Dugger then goes on to argue that Tool had moved on to a focus on the importance of democracy and civil rights and general participation in important social decisions. Certainly this at least partly reflects the concerns of time with the Vietnam War, MLK and Watergate amongst others. Tool, unlike Ayres, also believes that many parts of the ceremonial system will fight to block change that moves us in an instrumental direction.


Glen Atkinson was one of the authors in the 1995 book as well. He wrote that Tool’s SVP did not provide a clear cut  set of criteria for moving forward but did provide general guidance on what analysts should be seeking in institutional change.  Atkinson believed it was far better than what the new institutional economics were proposing with simply injecting transaction costs into the analysis. Finally, he wrote that Tool’s SVP acknowledged that this is a process rather than a definitive end point.


Warren Samuels also wrote in this book on the issue of the strengths and weaknesses of the SVP principle.  Similar to Atkinson, Samuels applauds the attempt to explicitly lay out the values and ethics that can guide institutional economics.  At the same time, he too also believes that it is unclear what specific would or would not be promoted by appealing to the social value principle.


It is clear that Tool's SVP remains an important part of the institutional economics field. The question as to its role in moving the field forward remains an open one in 2020.




 


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