Rethinking Moral Economy.

Political scientists debate as intensely as ever the idea of a moral economy, which contains both descriptive and prescriptive elements. The descriptive element reflects the contributions of, among others, anthropologists and refers to the various, essentially noneconomic norms and obligations (e.g., reciprocity) that mediate the central social, political, and/or economic relations of a given (almost always pre- or nonmarket) people.

The prescriptive element refers to moral economy's status and value as an instrument for social and political analysis. Whether used to evaluate the ...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.