Post-classical political economy: Polity, society and economy in Weber, Mises and Hayek - Austrian School Perspectives - Max Weber, Ludwig Von Mises, Friedrich A. von Hayek

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, Jan, 2002 by Peter J. Boettke, Virgil Henry Storr

Individuals, in the Weber-Austrian approach, are not assumed to maximize within an institutionless vacuum, nor are they assumed to be merely puppets of structural forces beyond their control. Reasonableness substitutes for hyper-rationality, and spontaneous ordering processes substitute for equilibrium end-states.

As stated earlier, this commitment to methodological individualism, methodological subjectivism and spontaneous ordering analysis found in the Weber-Austrian approach also results in a richer conception of embeddedness than is commonly articulated. That is, it results in a conception of embeddedness in which the economy and the polity do not merely form concentric circles located within the society but where the relationship between economy, polity and society is constantly reconsidered and recast. (27)

VI

Examples of Austrian Analytical Narratives Grounded in Embeddedness

A COGENT EXAMPLE OF THIS APPROACH tO the social sciences, in which the complex relationship between polity, society and economy is recognized and embraced and a "rich" conception of embeddedness informs the analysis, is Chamlee-Wright's (1997, 2000a, 2000b) studies of market women in Zimbabwe and Ghana. Consider, for example, her discussion of the social, cultural, political and economic barriers female entrepreneurs must overcome in order to succeed in Harare. As she informs, in Zimbabwe among the Shona people she studied, it is still quite common for male suitors to offer their intended's family a labola, that is, to pay a bride price:

. . . the prospective husband is expected to make significant sacrifices to his wife's natal family. Traditionally, a Shona marriage is a process that takes place over a long period of time, requiring the husband to give the bride's family small gifts, indicating his intentions, followed by several substantial payments in the form of cattle in order to gain sexual rights and eventually the rights to the bride's labor as she moves to the husband's home. (2000a)

This social convention, common in patrilineal societies throughout sub-Saharan Africa, has evolved, as Chamlee-Wright argues, because of the economic implications of marriage for the woman's family. Unlike matrilineal societies, where after marriage it is still quite likely that a woman will continue to make economic contributions to her natal family, among the Shona the bonds between the bride and her family become secondary after the wedding. The labola sought and paid in Shona societies can, therefore, be viewed as compensation to the woman's natal family for the material loss they suffer after she is married. (28)

The social and political implications of this economically conditioned phenomena are profound. The woman's political and economic autonomy, her capacity to respond to abuse or neglect by her husband and her control over her resources and her children all diminish once the labola is paid and the marriage performed. The labola also acts, Chamlee-Wright informs us, as an impediment to the development of a dynamic class of female entrepreneurs.