1. Comparing State Economic Ideologies and Business Ethics in East Asia, Ingyu Oh
This special issue deals with modes of ethical persuasion in both public and private sectors of the national economy in East Asia from the periods of the 14th century ...
1. Comparing State Economic Ideologies and Business Ethics in East Asia, Ingyu Oh
This special issue deals with modes of ethical persuasion in both public and private sectors of the national economy in East Asia from the periods of the 14th century to the modern era. Authors in this volume ask how and why governments in pre-modern Joseon Korea, modern Korea, and modern Japan used moral persuasions of different kinds in designing national economic institutions. Our case studies demonstrate that the concept of modes of exchange first developed by John Lie (1992) provides a more convincing explanation on the evolution of pre-modern and modern economic institutions compared with Marx’s modes of production as historically-specific social relations or Smith’s free market as a terminal stage of human economic development. The pre-modern and modern cases presented in this volume reveal that different modes of exchange have coexisted throughout human history, contrary to deterministic and Eurocentric views of economic history. Furthermore, business ethics or corporate social responsibility is not a purely European economic ideology, because manorial, market, entrepreneurial, and mercantilist moral persuasions had widely been used by state rulers and policymakers in East Asia for their programs of advancing dissimilar modes of exchange. In a similar vein, the domination of the market and entrepreneurial modes in the 21st century world is also complemented by other competing modes of ex-change, such as state welfarism, public sector economies, and protectionism.
2. Beneath the Surface: A Discussion of Prominent Ideologies and Philosophical Influences on Anglo-American Business Ethics, Hannah Jun
This paper examines the economic rationalization and moral justification of capitalist systems in England and America between the 17th and 19th centuries within the framework of modes of exchange. On the surface, there existed a shared sociopolitical outcome which legitimized personal wealth, individualism, and political liberty. But contrary to conventional understanding, early English and American socioeconomic underpinnings of the market economy created different, if not divergent, motivational bases among the state, aristocracy, and the masses. Specifically, the English landed gentry formed a leisure class that shaped a culture of “gentlemanly” capitalism and enjoyed conspicuous consumption, while early American capitalists championed labor and hard work in tandem with a marked Puritan ethic. Thus, even for seemingly similar modes of exchange, very different patterns of ethical justifications of business practices existed. This supports the broader hypothesis that the evolution of modes of exchange requires geographically- and historically-specific moral or ethical justifications.
3. Business Ethics and Government: Intervention in the Market in Joseon, Sangsoon Kang, Joohee Choi
This paper analyzes the Daedongbeop tax reform to under-stand management ethics adopted by the kings and elite of late Joseon. Unlike other interpretations that view such reform as evidence of a linear movement towards a capitalist market system, this paper argues that such tax reform represented efforts at defending manorial and mercantilist modes of exchange and highlights the economic and ethical incentives of the Confucian goodwill that reinforced the traditional economic basis of the dynasty. The moral justification of the tax system was Confucian in nature and emphasized its humanitarian principle in contrast with justifications of efficiency for the market mode. As such, the Confucian ethical persuasion helped Joseon to hold on to firm manorial and mercantile rule in East Asia and maintained its hold going into the 19th century.