A note on the idea of the moral economy. (comment on an article by Robert Bates and Amy Curry, American Political Science Review, vol.86, p.457, 1992)

Robert Bates' and Amy Curry's criticism on the central ideas forwarded by moral economists did not focus on the central thesis of the moral economy school. They failed to discuss the more salient dimensions in the integration of economic activity. These important aspects are redistribution, reciprocity and exchange. Bates and Curry did not explain the nonmarket forms of integration. However, their research opened the avenue for future study on the normative facets of the pre-capitalist era.

Few controversies are as long enduring as those which turn around the work of the moral economists, ...

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