Samuels, Warren J. --- "John R. Commons (1862–1945)" [2005] ELECD 160; in Backhaus, G. Jürgen (ed), "The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: The Elgar Companion to Law and Economics, Second Edition

Editor(s): Backhaus, G. Jürgen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420321

Section: Chapter 36

Section Title: John R. Commons (1862–1945)

Author(s): Samuels, Warren J.

Number of pages: 9

Extract:

36 John R. Commons (1862­1945)
Warren J. Samuels


John R. Commons was a historian and theoretician of the economic system in
general and of capitalism in particular. The core of his legal­economic theory
was presented in the title of one of his major works, Legal Foundations of
Capitalism (1924). Central to his analyses were understandings that markets
are formed and structured by institutions and power structures which also
operate through them; that chief among these institutions were those of law and
government; that economy and polity coevolved through a legal­economic
nexus; that states and politics were essentially processes of collective bargain-
ing among powerful interested parties; that the economy was an object of legal
control and the law was an object of economic advantage; that politics was a
contest to control the state, often for economic objectives; and that legal­
economic policy making was a process through which the organization and
control of the economic system was worked out, constituting in part authorita-
tive determinations of public purpose ­ and it was only through articulation of
public purpose that choices between conflicting private interests could be
established. Commons developed these ideas in a series of publications issued
throughout his life. Together with his work on labour unions, these ideas were
the foundation of his version of institutional economics.
Commons derived his theoretical insights from his practical, historical and
empirical studies, particularly in the field of labour relations and in various
areas of social reform. He drew insight not ...