Bruce R. Scott
There are 3 articles for this faculty member.
What is the Role of Government Vis-à-Vis Capitalism?
| Published: | November 4, 2009 |
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| Feature: | What Do YOU Think? |
| Forum: | open for comment; 55 Comments posted |
Online forum OPEN through November 24. A new monograph by HBS professor emeritus Bruce R. Scott describes the role that government plays in preserving both capitalism and democracy. Professor Jim Heskett asks: How should a government best support or constrain markets? What do you think?
Published in 2007
The Business of Global Poverty
| Published: | April 4, 2007 |
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| Feature: | Research & Ideas |
Nearly half of the planet's population subsists on $2 a day or less. What role should business play as the world confronts what may be the most explosive socioeconomic challenge of the new century?
Published in 2006
The Political Economy of Capitalism
| Author: | Bruce R. Scott |
|---|---|
| Published: | December 19, 2006 |
| Paper Release Date: | December 2006 |
| Feature: | Working Papers |
Capitalism is often defined as an economic system where private actors are allowed to own and control the use of property according to their own interests, and where the invisible hand of the pricing mechanism coordinates supply and demand in markets in a way that is automatically in the best interests of society. Government, in this perspective, is often described as responsible for peace, justice, and tolerable taxes. Bruce Scott argues in this chapter that for a capitalist system to evolve in an effective developmental sense through time, it must have two hands, not one: an invisible hand that is implicit in the pricing mechanism, and a visible hand that is explicitly managed by government through a legislature and a bureaucracy. Inevitably the actions of the visible hand imply a strategy, no matter how implicit, shortsighted, or incoherent that strategy may be.
