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Hirschman:The reason he was interested in economic anthropology was because oftwoquestions:Why did economic development not work out the way we wanted it to?

Why was it that things came to be.

2 theories to deal with passion: RepressiveThe way rulers ruled is the same way that fathers ruled their househould.Do as I say, or else.

Two ways Hirschman says that power was exercised:1) Do as I say or heads will be cut (fear of punishment)2) Do things because the church says so (fear of God)

Self interest became a powerful idea because it marked a huge shift in theway that power works.Society shifted in a way in which rulers used to control people into asociety in which people pursue self interest so that they were too busy toundermine the ruler's orders.

Historically, church lost power because of a shift to secular rule. Peoplebecame less scared of the power of religion and as a result the idea ofpursuing self interest became more important.

Harness itPg17: Giambattista Vico quoteOut of ferocity, avarice, and ambition, the three vices which lead allmankind astraysociety makes national defense, commerce, and politics,andthereby causes the strength, the wealth, and the wisdom of the republics;out of these three great vices which would certainly destroy man on earth,society thus causes the civil happiness to emerge. This principle provesthe existence of divine providence: through its intelligent laws and the

pursuit of their private utility are transformed into a civil order whichpermits men to live in human society.

Harnessing the passions of men so that they work towards generalwelfare.How does one harness the passions of men into productivity?This theory lacked reason.

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HOWEVER

The first two theories lacked persuasiveness so he came up with a thirdone:

The principle of countervailing passionPit two passions against each other in order to mitigate their effect.One thing men were passionate about was war. Hirschman wrote his workduring a time of great strife where rulers were preoccupied by beingbloodthirsty tyrants pitting their countries against war with each other.

The reason that this theory came into place was because he believed thatinterest is boring.If you keep people busy pursuing their interests, they will becomeboring/busy. Everyone will become rational/predictable.

This theory came into play because people were looking for ways toescapewar and it was thought that one way to prevent war was to keep peoplepreoccupied with other things. There came the theory of countervailinginterests into which hoped that people were to transfer their interestsfrom war to money-making.

MAIN IDEAMoney-making was thought of as a calm passion able to mitigate thebloodthirsty passion of war.

Hirschman argues, a new ethos eventually emerged in the postmedieval world which

involved the belief that social stability could be assured and progress could beengineered, not by repressing or even harnessing the passions, but by exploiting the

relatively innocuous ones against the more destructive.

Thus, out of the crucible of the 17th century analysis of human nature, the principle of thecountervailing passion arose.

The rehabilitation of avarice, for example, is reflected in changes in linguistic usage, and

Hirschman brilliantly traces the changes in denotation and connotation which wereattached to the central word interest.