From the Economics of Responsibility to Economic Responsibility: Introduction

Abstract

This introduction provides an overview on the content of John Maurice Clark’s article The Changing Basis of Economic Responsibility and the contributions to the book Economic Responsibility – John Maurice Clark: A Classic on Economic Responsibility. At the beginning, the introduction provides reasons for the specification of a concept of economic responsibility that stems from economic theory. Taking Clark’s perspective, it analyzes the social and economic changes in the US at the turn of the last century and their consequences for economic theory and practice. Clark was striving for the development of an economics of responsibility and a change in the working business ethics. The social and economic changes Clark faced in the US are described with respect to metaphysics, loci of responsibility, and social responsibility. Differences in the understanding of individual, collective, and social responsibility are addressed as well. This introduction further devotes attention to the close relationship of Clark’s works on economic responsibility and social value; economic value and social value; and individual control and public control. The final section introduces the reader to the articles in the collected volume.