Ekonomiczny imperializm Gary’ego S. Beckera

Whether I study or watch television is a choice to invest or to consume that parallels the decision whether to use my income to spend or to save. At the forefront of such an understanding of society as if a market, based on atomized individual decision making, has been Gary Becker. As Becker puts it in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1992: “My research uses the economic approach to analyze social issues that range beyond those usually conceived by economists”. According to Becker many activities thought to be noneconomic in nature are actually economic problems. Economic theory can thus help explain phenomena traditionally located outside the scope of economics, in the areas of law, sociology, biology, political science, and anthropology. The development of this economic imperialism is the most characteristic feature of his approach. Whilst Becker’s economic approach claims universal applicability, both its name and its content, despite disclaimers to the contrary, betray their origins within mainstream neoclassical economics. As Becker unwittingly confi rms, his concern is the universal projection of the market model.