The Significance of Belief Patterns in Economic Regulation
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296101400349 |
| Published date | 01 September 1961 |
| Date | 01 September 1961 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
13
THE
SIGNIFICANCE
OF
BELIEF
PATTERNS
IN
ECONOMIC
REGULATION
EMMETTE
S.
REDFORD
University
of
Texas
ELIEFS
determine
social
action.
It
is
true,
of
course,
that
if
beliefs
are
the
chicken,
there
are
many
eggs
in
its
lineage,
and
that
these
have
yolks
of
social
force
and
whites
of
environment.
Beliefs
may
be
rationalizations
of
need,
symbols
for
interests,
links
in
a
chain
between
the
forging
of
interests
and
the
institutionalization
of
behavior.
It
is
true,
nevertheless,
that
our
concepts
are
guides
for
our
action.
It
may
be,
as
Justice
Holmes
remarked,
that
&dquo;the
decision
in
a
particular
case
will
depend
on
a
judgment
or
intuition
more
inarticulate
than
any
major
premise&dquo;;&dquo;
but
behind
a
decision
or
a
line
of
decisions
there
are
some
thought
formations,
vague
or
precise,
about
fairness,
reasonableness,
etficiency,
duty
to
decide,
and
other
matters.
Some
beliefs
are
deeply
rooted
in
the
cultural
heritage
and
are
called
tradi-
tions,
some
are
interpretations
of
recent
experience,
others
are
responses
to
cur-
rent
need.
Some
are
frozen,
others
are
fluid
before
the
face
of
circumstance.
Some
yielding
to
organic
factors
may
normally
be
expected,
and
also
some
com-
promise
with
competing
beliefs.
Yet
they
are
crystallizations
and
therefore
clues
to
tendencies.
They
are
consensus
for
the
present
and
direction-setters
for
the
future.
They
are
one
source
of
understanding
about
a
series
of
decisions,
a
trend
in
policy,
or
the
evolution
of
a
social
program.2
2
This
paper
reflects
my
search
for
belief
patterns
behind
a
system
of
economic
regulation
-
that
for
domestic
commercial
air
transport.
The
analysis
is
limited
to
this
single
area
of
regulation,
but
out
of
your
own
awareness
you
may
see
in
the
analysis
explanations
of
a
larger
complex
of
social
behavior
-
the
whole
system
of
public
regulation
of
private
economic
activity.
The
beliefs
have
all
been
stated
repeatedly,
though
perhaps
not
in
the
same
words
used
by
the
author.
The
author’s
contribution,
if
such
there
is,
lies
in
isola-
tion
of
the
beliefs
from
total
reality,
in
imputations
of
significance,
and
in
elabora-
tions
on
what
is
explicit
and
implicit
in
belief
and
circumstance.
It
may
lie
also
in
the
ordering
of
these
beliefs
and
in
the
resulting
conclusions
about
relevant
political
science
study.
The
beliefs,
or
patterns
of
belief,
will
be
stated
categori-
cally
under
seven
numbered
headings
and
grouped
in
rather
loose
areas
of
correlation.
BASIC
ASSUMPTION
1.
Public
needs
are
dominant
In
our
basic
thinking
economic
purpose
and
political
purpose
are
the
same.
The
public
is
king.
It
is
occupants
of
houses,
not
architects
and
builders,
whose
NOTE:
Excepting
the
documentation,
this
is
an
address
given
by
the
President
of
the
American
Political
Science
Association
at
the
fifteenth
annual
meeting
of
the
Western
Political
Science
Association,
March
30,
1961,
held
at
the
University
of
Colorado,
Boulder.
1
Lochner
v.
New
York,
198
U.S.
45,
76
(1905).
2
The
outstanding
analysis
of
the
influence
of
opinion
on
law
is
A. V.
Dicey,
Lectures
on
the
Relation
between
Law
and
Opinion
in
England,
During
the
Nineteenth
Century
(New
York:
Macmillan,
1905).
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