Four Essays

Question one: Brunner and Meckling describe two basic conceptions of "man"REMM and Sociological, with Political man a subset of Sociological. They clearly have a favorite. What do you think of their use of this frame of reference to critique the liberal position. How would they evaluate Friedman, Heller, and Foley?

Clearly, the favored conception of man in the Karl Brunner and William Meckling article is "resourceful, evaluating, maximizing man" (REMM), as opposed to sociological man, or its subset Political man.1 In defending the REMM conception of man, the authors are as narrow and as restrictive in their perceptions as they accuse the proponents of sociological man of being fuzzy and evasive in their justifications. What neither the authors, as proponents for REMM, nor the proponents of sociological man appear to be capable of doing is recognizing that (1) both perceptions accurately describe human behavior in some situations, (2) that human behavior in most situations is best explained by some combination of the characteristics associated with REMM and sociological man, and (3) that the exact combination of the characteristics of REMM and sociological man will tend to be fluid depending upon the given issue, event, circumstance, and time. Brunner and Meckling are as dogmatic in their support of REMM as they accuse the supporters of sociological man of being in their support of a socialist doctrine, or in support of what Brunner and Meckling refer to as the "Li

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s, are the determinants of these changes mainly structural, ideological, or political? What do you think? Friedman stated that the basic roles of government in a free society are to "provide a means whereby we can modify the rules, to mediate differences among us on the meaning of the rules, and to enforce compliance with the rules on the part of those few who would not otherwise play the game."8 Friedman clearly thinks, on the basis of this statement, that government's participation in society should be quite limited, and he clearly thinks, on the basis of this statement, that the overwhelming majority of the people in American society will quite willingly conform to any rules determined by the majority in society. Friedman, therefore, would likely explain the growth and changing composition of governmental activities in American society as a manifestation of individuals and organizations acting on political agendas in an attempt to seek through governmental action or protection that which they could not otherwise attain. Such a position, of course, usually conveniently overlooks the fact that most governmental regulation of business was first implemented at the behest of the businesses concerned for their own protection.

Category: Government - F