Journal article
Don’t Blame Us: How Our Attributional Proclivities Influence the Relationship between Americans, Business, and Government
Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal, Vol.5, p509
2010
Abstract
People seem at no loss for words when it comes to metaphors for the government. Overbearing father. Noble steed. Nightwatchman. Parasite. Pig. Alimentary canal. Hive of bees.
Many of the metaphors are flexible enough that they can be cast in multiple lights. Robert Shiller, the Yale economist, has suggested that "[t]he government is like a referee in a sports match: The players argue with him, but they don't want him to leave the game." Rich Karlgaard at Forbes magazine, by contrast, has asserted that "[t]he government is like a referee who says he wants a good game but also wants to jigger the rulebook and manage the outcome."
In such analogical debates, with the focus on exposing the true essence of governance or regulation, it can be all too easy to treat the subject as fixed and settled. But, in fact, the relationship between business, government and the people is changeable and contingent. The nature of interactions is constantly being redefined as the complex adaptive system morphs and modulates.
Certain psychological tendencies, existing power dynamics and structures may serve as constraints on the evolution of the system, but there is much that is variable, and even these constraints may change form in the unfolding interplay of the regulated and the regulating.
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Details
- Title
- Don’t Blame Us: How Our Attributional Proclivities Influence the Relationship between Americans, Business, and Government
- Creators
- Adam F Benforado - Drexel University, Thomas R. Kline School of Law
- Publication Details
- Entrepreneurial Business Law Journal, Vol.5, p509
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Thomas R. Kline School of Law
- Identifiers
- 991021895414104721