Macroeconomics as Systems Theory: Transcending the Micro-Macro Dichotomy

Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
List of Figures
1 Macroeconomics as Systems Theory: Setting the Stage
	The Network Architecture of Economic Systems
	DSGE: Construing Economies as Mechanistic Systems
	OEE: Construing Economies as Creative and Volitional Systems
	Order Without Equilibrium: What Object for a Macro-Level Theory?
	Equilibrium as Personal Mental Map: Observers vs. Participants
	Regarding the Micro–Macro Dialectics of Economic Theory
	Two Probability Concepts Necessary for Macro Theory
	A Macro Economy as an Ecology of Plans
	Plans vs. Spending Within a Macro Ecology
	References
2 Models of Social Order: Mechanical vs. Creative
	Aggregation vs. Emergence: How Might It Matter?
	Parades and Pedestrian Crowds as Contrasting Social Configurations
	Teleological Individuals Inside a Non-teleological System
	Conceptualizing Rational Action Without Imposing Societal Synchronicity
	Theoretical Baselines for Establishing Systemic Normality
	Method and Substance: Interactive, Not Additive
	On DSGE and Maximizing Expected Utility
	Stag Hunts and Game Theoretic Explanations of Coordination Failure
	Synecology as Interaction with Divided and Limited Knowledge
	Macro Theorizing: Atomic vs. Sub-atomic Analysis
	References
3 Structures of Production and Properties of Social Order
	The Circular Flow Conception of an Economic System
	Economic Systems as Evolving Structures of Production
	Individual Plans and Structures of Production
	Plans as Primitive, Spending as Derivative
	Illustrative Macro Problematic #1: Market Failure with Price Rigidity
	Illustrative Macro Problematic #2: Aggregate Demand Deficiency
	Public Property Within Economic Systems
	References
4 Diachronic Action Within an Ecology of Plans
	Economic Theory and Economic Systems: An Impoverished Vocabulary
	Institutional Incongruity and Systems Performance
	Systems and Institutions: The Problematic of Rule-Guided Governance
	Private Ordering and Economic Interaction
	Public Ordering and the Generation of Societal Tectonics
	Braided Character of Conflict and Cooperation Within Societies
	Responding to Plan Failure: Bankruptcy, Business Reorganization, Politics
	Quantity, Quality, and Social Order: The Evanescence of Output Gaps
	Structure of Production vs. Circular Flow, Redux
	References
5 Kaleidic Economies and Internally Generated Change
	Systems Thinking: Mechanistic or Volitional and Creative?
	Systemic Equilibrium: Misleading but Not Wrong as Social Theory
	Natural Fluidity Within an Ecology of Plans
	Systemic Normality: Turbulent and Diachronic
	Outliers, Masses, and the Release of Societal Energy: A Quantum-Like View
	Exogenous Shocks as Misidentified Conflict Among Plans
	Moderating Turbulence Through Private Ordering
	Intensifying Turbulence Through Public Ordering
	Macro Growth Theory: Shadow Boxing with Reality?
	References
6 Entangled Political Economy Within Human Population Systems
	On Some Conventional Welfare Economics of Economic Stabilization
	Market, Polity, and Entangled Political Economy with Society as Artifact
	Is Economic Stabilization Technically Attainable?
	Is Stabilization Politically Supportable?
	Political Business Cycles: A Reasonable Idea, Terribly Articulated
	An Alternative Framework for PBC Reconceptualization
	Probing Some Analytical Possibilities
	Some Agonistics of Ricardian Equivalence
	References
7 Public Policy as the Political Calculation of Economic Value
	Human Nature and the Structure of Economic Analysis
	Limited Knowledge and the Myths We Live By
	The Myth of Scientific Policymaking
	Policymaking as Quasi-profit Seeking
	Public Policy as Macro-theoretic Illusion
	Two Environments for Action: Logical and Non-logical
	The Use of Knowledge Within Democratic Polities
	Image, Ideology, and Competition Over Policy Space
	Generative Processes and Bridging the Micro–Macro Gap
	References
8 Money, Credit, and Commanding the Societal Heights
	Money and Credit in a Constitution of Liberty
	The Significance of Georg Simmel’s Philosophy of Money
	Money, Language, and Economic Calculation
	Neutral Money: Historical Process Vs. Comparative Statics
	Reclaiming the Ex Ante-Ex Post Distinction
	Credit Contracts and Processes for Crafting the Future
	A Political Economy of Public Property
	What Is Monetary Policy if not the Enforcement of Contracts?
	Money and Credit as Objects of Continuing Societal Contestation
	Mises, Hayek, and Austrian Cycle Theory: A Beautiful Diamond Terribly Set
	References
9 Reason, Sentiment, and Democratic Action
	The Misguided Lure of the Intuitively Obvious
	Pareto’s Theory of Action and Democratic Competition for Political Office
	Reason and Sentiment in Human Affairs
	Combination, Persistence, and Societal Tectonics
	Complexity and the Confounding of Causation with Systemic Properties
	From Liberal Democracy to Neo-Feudalism: An Evolutionary Unfolding
	References
10 Liberalism, Collectivism, and Democracy
	Mailed Fists, Velvet Gloves, and Democratic Despotism
	Identifying Despotism: Objectivist and Subjectivist Orientations
	Science, Art, and Political Economy
	Polycentricity: Distinguishing Form from Substance
	From General Will to Structures of Power: Demythologizing Democracy
	Specialized Knowledge and the Social Organization of Expertise
	Handshakes and Guns in Securing Human Flourishing
	Friends, Enemies, and Carl Schmitt’s Autonomy of the Political
	Regarding the Social Philosophy Toward Which This Book Points
	References
Author Index
Subject Index