On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 01:34, J. Andrew Rogers
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Much of what constitutes Anglo-American capitalism is a natural consequence
> of the English Common Law system under which such economies operate. As
> principles, the sanctity of contract, the assumption of individual
> sovereignty, and a judicial bias toward equitable outcomes have an
> undeniably positive track record when it comes to successful economies. If
> nothing else it greatly reduces business risk due to political whim, which
> has real financial impact.
Just to pick nits:
I would think "judicial bias toward equitable outcomes" would go
against the first two ("sanctity of contract" and "assumption of
individual sovereignty"). (Is that what you meant to highlight?) And
rather than being traced back to the English Common Law system, I
think they can be traced back to the Enlightenment and E-inspired
theorists and legal commentators. I find it difficult to see why the
Common Law system _per se_ (in contrast to the Civil Law system, for
instance) would privilege individuality.
On a separate note, I think every one should check out the debates
over at the Creative Capitalism blog
<http://creativecapitalism.typepad.com/>. Don't hate it just because
it's a term coined by Bill Gates. The contributors list
<http://creativecapitalism.typepad.com/creative_capitalism/contributors-to-creative-.html>
is a virtual who's who.
Cheers,
Pranesh
