The Problem With Interest

The Interest in Disinterestedness

A key feature of those who work for the state, in the legal system and in public services is that they claim to be putting their own personal interests aside and working in a disinterested fashion, for the public good. But is disinterested behaviour possible? Can law be treated as a set of universal rules that are independent of particular interests, or is this mere ideology? Is the state bureaucracy a universal class, as Hegel thought, or a structure that serves the interests of the dominant class, as Marx claimed? In his lecture courses at the Collège de France in 1987–88 and 1988–89, Pierre Bourdieu addressed these questions by examining the formation of the legal and bureaucratic fields characteristic of the modern state, uncovering the historical and social conditions that enable a social group to form and find its own interests in the very fact of serving interests that go beyond it. For a disinterested universe to emerge, it needs both the invention of a public service, or a spirit of service to the public cause, and the creation of a social universe in which individuals can pursue a career devoted to public service and be rewarded for it. In other words, it requires a process of specialization whereby autonomous, specific fields become established in the social cosmos within which a special kind of game that follows the rules of disinterest can be played out. By reconstructing the conditions under which an interest in disinterestedness emerged, Bourdieu sheds new light on the formation of the modern state and legal system and provides a fresh perspective on the many professions in modern societies that are oriented towards the service of the common good.

The Problem with Interest

The Theory of Interest

This book contains a critical analysis of the main theories of interest which have been published since B÷hm-Bawerk. The last part of the book gives an account of the author's own theory.The first part, which deals with the history of doctrines, discusses the theories of B÷hm-Bawerk, Wicksell, Akerman, and Hayek, authors who proceed from the assumption of stationary state.The second group of authors consists of Walras, Irving Fisher, and F. H. Knight, who assume a progressive economy in which net saving and investment occur.The third group of authors are those who stress the monetary factor. The central figure of this part is Keynes; but other authors, among them Patinkin, are also dealt with. The theories on the term structure of interest rates are discussed in the last part of the history of doctrines. The author's own theory deals with the problem of the interest rate first in terms of partial equilibrium analysis, whereby particular attention is paid to the influence of the banking system on the structure of interest rates.In the final chapter the author proceeds to expound the interest theory in the framework of general equilibrium analysis. A mathematical appendix concludes this book.Friedrich A. Lutz (1901-1975) taught economics at Princeton University for fifteen years before becoming Professor of Economics at the University of Zurich. He was also the president of the Mont Pelerin Society from 1964-1967.