Changing the Rules of the Game: Recasting the Legal and Ethical Foundation of Business and Management

Abstract

The neoliberal critique tends to pit the state—and its multifarious appendages—in opposition to the market, with the former typically depicted as a negative, debilitating, inefficient entity, in contrast to the market which is presented as a ‘natural’ phenomenon and the solution to virtually all socio-economic problems. Buoyed up by transaction cost economics, which sees markets as natural and organisations— both public and private—as instances of ‘market failure’, the neoliberal critique has waged an incessant war on the state, seeking to minimise and marginalise its remit, while, at every turn, questioning its need for and use of resources. In short, the state (and its bureaucracy) is bad and the market is good. However, this critique is problematic because the historical record indicates that markets are either directly or indirectly produced by government action, and, paradoxically, attempts to create a ‘free’ market have increased rather than reduced the size of the state’s bureaucracy (Graeber, 2015). What is clear is that the state, through legislation, enables business to happen, and is also deeply implicated in monitoring and controlling business practice.