The Journal of Economic Abstracts March 1968 [antikvár]

Abstract and Article Listing by Subject General Economics: Methodology Boulding, K. E. The Legitimacy of Economics. The problem of legitimacy is one which has been neglected by economists, perhaps because it is something which is taken for granted when present, and when it is absent, the system falls apart with such rapidity that there is no time to investigate it. In this paper the word legitimacy is used to cover a wide range of social phenomena which center around the concept of acceptance of an institution or an organization as right, proper, justified and acceptable. Six possible sources of legitimacy are outlined. In the long run positive payoffs are perhaps the most powerful source; negative payoffs (sacrifices) may also create legitimacy, though not indefinitely. An organization may have legitimacy because it is old (or in some cases because it is new). Legitimacy may be a product of mystery, or of communication through accepted symbols of legitimacy. Finally, an institution may acquire legitimacy through association with an established institution. The author analyzes the sources of the legitimacy of economics as a discipline and of economists as a profession; both the historical sources of legitimacy and present sources are discussed. The author also deals with the question of the relation of the legitimacy of an intellectual discipline to the truth of its content. Finally, the possibility is suggested that changes in the future may threaten the legitimacy of economics as a separate discipline. Perhaps the very success of economics—one measure of which is its analytic self-sufficiency-may tend to isolate it from the other social sciences. Departmental and disciplinary lines, however, may mask real problems which, if unsolved, may result in loss of legitimacy for the discipline. Perhaps economics must lose its life in order to save it. Western Econ. Jour., Sept. 1967, 5(4), pp. 299-307 (English). The University of Colorado, USA 31