The name is absent

criticisms amount to a significant attack on the M model from the perspective of efficiency, in
addition to its failures with respect to equity and participation.

One alternative proposed is to incorporate COOP behaviour into theoretical models, as a
corrective to the myopic view of the ‘rational’ person as being a short-term egotistic
maximiser.¹⁷ As Sen puts it: ‘the purely rational man is close to being a social moron’ (Sen,
1977, p). Moreover, the recognition of trust and COOP as an essential aspect of efficient
market relations, before one even considers non-market ones, has led to emphasis on the need
for more COOP, as exemplified, e.g. in the work of Putnam or Stiglitz. There is increasingly
wide agreement that ‘social capital’ is an important aspect of economic development. The
irony is that by assuming, incorrectly, that ‘rational’ short-term maximisers constitute the
basic economic agents, the profession has introduced policies - the neo-liberal package -
which come near to making this true and in so doing actually undermine the efficiency of the
system they are supposed to be enhancing. Hence Putnam’s dismay that ‘social capital’ is
declining in the US, pithily summarised in the title of his article ’Bowling alone’.

There were also organisational and political reactions to the adoption of a pure market model.
One such reaction has come from the huge expansion in the number of NGOs, both
international and local. Some of these new NGOs are groups basically fulfilling efficiency
functions, which undertake activities previously conducted by the state, and whose mode of
operation is greatly influenced by general government philosophy. But others have developed
in reaction to events - performing claims functions. These include popular organisations
demanding resources or improved services from the state or private sector, and also
campaigning organisations. For example, national and international NGOs have campaigned
effectively for specific market constraints (e.g. against the MAI; in favour of debt relief;
against free trade). Another reaction has come in the form of legal challenges to market
outcomes often organised by COOP style groups, mainly in developed countries, e.g. towards
the tobacco industry, mobile phones, the car industry and so on. A third reaction has been the

¹⁷ As argued elsewhere - Heyer et al., 1999, Alkire and Severine, (this volume) - there
are a number of alternatives to the short-term maximising assumption, including long-term
reciprocal behaviour, altruism, behaviour based on sympathy and commitment (Sen) and
behaviour based on a sense of identity (Akerlof and Kranton, 1998).

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