Swedberg full PB cover 8mm spine.qxp 27/06/05 14:50 Page 1 Concepts in the Social Sciences Concepts in the Social Sciences Series Editor: Frank Parkin R i IINNTTEERREESSTT c h a One of the central questions in social science is ‘Why do r people behave as they do?’ A common social scientific d answer is ‘because of their interests’. S Despite the importance of the concept of interest for the w social sciences, it has been discussed surprisingly little, I n t e r e s t and many aspects of its general history and many uses e are largely unknown. In this book, Richard Swedberg d attempts to remedy this situation through an easily b accessible introduction to the topic, starting with a history of the concept that covers the origin of the word e and its early use in philosophy, political science, r literature and everyday language. He then pioneers an g analysis of the emergence of interest as a sociological concept during the 19th century. Arguing that economists have reduced the concept of interest to that of economic interest, he emphasizes that sociologists, in I contrast, have attempted to develop a flexible and social n concept of interest. t e Moving on to a discussion of the contemporary use of the concept of interest in economics, sociology and r political science, the book concludes with a discussion of e the potential of the concept of interest as a policy tool. s t RRiicchhaarrdd SSwweeddbbeerrgg is Professor of Sociology at Cornell University. He is the author of several works in economic sociology, including Max Weber and the Idea of Economic Sociology(1998) and Principles of Economic Sociology(2003). cover design: Eleanor Hayes R i c h a r d S w e d b e r g Interest CCOONNCCEEPPTTSSIINNTTHHEESSOOCCIIAALL SSCCIIEENNCCEESS Series editor:Frank Parkin Publishedtitles DDeemmooccrraaccyy((SSeeccoonnddEEddiittiioonn)) Anthony Arblaster DDiissccrriimmiinnaattiioonn MichaelBanton CCiittiizzeennsshhiipp J. M.Barbalet WWeellffaarree((SSeeccoonnddEEddiittiioonn)) Norman Barry FFrreeeeddoomm ZygmuntBauman BBuurreeaauuccrraaccyy((SSeeccoonnddEEddiittiioonn)) DavidBeetham NNaattiioonnaalliissmm Craig Calhoun TTrroottsskkyyiissmm Alex Callinicos RReevvoolluuttiioonnaanndd Peter Calvert CCoouunntteerr--RReevvoolluuttiioonn PPoolliiccyy((SSeeccoonnddEEddiittiioonn)) H. K. Colebatch SSoocciiaalliissmm BernardCrick EExxcchhaannggee JohnDavis SSoocciiaallSScciieennccee Gerard Delanty SSoocciiaallDDaarrwwiinniissmm Peter Dickens PPoowweerr KeithDowding RRiigghhttss MichaelFreeden FFeemmiinniissmm Jane Freedman SScciieennccee Steve Fuller LLiibbeerraalliissmm((SSeeccoonnddEEddiittiioonn)) JohnGray TThheeSSttaattee JohnA.Hall andG.JohnIkenberry KKiinnsshhiipp C. C.Harris SSoovveerreeiiggnnttyy JohnHoffman DDiissccoouurrssee DavidHowarth UUttooppiiaanniissmm Krishan Kumar SSoocciiaallSSttrruuccttuurree Jose Lopezand JohnScott PPoossttmmooddeerrnniittyy((SSeeccoonnddEEddiittiioonn)) DavidLyon IIddeeoollooggyy((SSeeccoonnddEEddiittiioonn)) DavidMcLellan PPlluurraalliissmm Gregor McLennan FFaasscciissmm MarkNeocleous CCoonnsseerrvvaattiissmm RobertNisbet SSttrruuccttuurraattiioonn JohnParker RRaacceeaannddEEtthhnniicciittyy JohnRex PPoossttccoommmmuunniissmm Richard Sakwa OOrriieennttaalliissmm Ziauddin Sardar CCaappiittaalliissmm Peter Saunders CCllaassss Richard Scase CCaassttee Ursula Sharma EEccoollooggiissmm MarkJ.Smith CCuullttuurree MarkJ.Smith PPoolluulliissmm PaulTaggart SSttaattuuss BryanS. Turner MMuullttiiccuullttuurraalliissmm C. W.Watson RRiisskk Roy Boyne IInntteerreesstt Richard Swedberg IInntteerreesstt Richard Swedberg Open University Press OpenUniversityPress McGraw-HillEducation McGraw-HillHouse ShoppenhangersRoad Maidenhead Berkshire England SL62QL email:[email protected] worldwideweb:www.openup.co.uk andTwoPennPlaza,NewYork,NY10121-2289,USA Firstpublished2005 Copyright#RichardSwedberg2005 Allrightsreserved.Exceptforthequotationofshortpassagesforthepurposesof criticismandreview,nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedina retrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyform,orbyanymeans,electronic, mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwise,withoutthepriorpermissionof thepublisheroralicencefromtheCopyrightLicensingAgencyLimited.Detailsof suchlicences(forreprographicreproduction)maybeobtainedfromtheCopyright LicensingAgencyLtdof90TottenhamCourtRoad,London,W1T4LP. AcataloguerecordofthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary ISBN-139780335216147(pb)9780335216154(pb) ISBN-100335216145(pb)0335216153(hb) LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData CIPdataappliedfor TypesetbyYHTLtd PrintedintheUKbyBell&BainLtd,Glasgow Contents Preface vii 1 Interest and its Many Traditions 1 2 Interest Becomes a Social Science Concept 25 3 Sociologists on Interest 48 4 Interest as Activity and Analogy 78 5 Addendum: Interest as a Policy Tool – A Case Study 107 References 118 Index 126 Preface Conceptsleadustomakeinvestigations; arethe expression of ourinterest, anddirect ourinterest. Wittgenstein,PhilosophicalInvestigations There are many concepts that are part of the vocabulary of the socialsciencesbuthavenotyethadthediscussionthattheydeserve. The concept of interest is one of these, and in the pages to come I will attempt to outline the ways in which it has been used, and variousattemptstodefineit.Myowndisciplineisthatofsociology but I have tried to cover the use of the concept of interest in other disciplines as well, especially economics and political science. Thematerialthatathoroughdiscussionoftheconceptofinterest should cover is enormous, and my attempts at intellectual triage have, I hope, been the right ones. I have also made a concerted effort to give a voice to many of the individual authors who have drawn on the concept of interest at the same time as I have criti- cized them; and a good balance between these two tasks has not always been easy to strike. The main theme in Chapter 1 is interest and its many traditions. Whenwelookatthewaythattheconceptofinteresthasbeenused throughout the centuries, I argue, we find a richness of different uses,andmanyofthesemayserveasaninspirationtoday.Chapter 2 is devoted to the topic of how the concept of interest slowly became transformed into a social science concept during the nine- teenthcentury;andthekeyissuehereiswhatwasgainedandlostin the process. Chapter 3 tells the story of the way that sociologists havetried toincorporate theconceptofinterest into their theories, fromtheclassicsuptotoday;and,again,anattempthasbeenmade tosortthewheatfromthechaff.InChapter4Idiscussthewaythat theconceptofinteresthasbeenusedinmodernpoliticalscienceand viii Interest economics.Ialsopresentanewapproachtotheconceptofinterest: whatitmeansandhowitshouldbeused.Ihavetriedtoaddressthe question of interest from a radically different perspective, and the reader will be the judge of its worth. The book ends with an addendum devoted to an issue that has not been discussed in the existing literature, namely interest as a policy concept. Because of the absence of material on this topic, I have chosen to address it in the form of a case study. The case I have chosen is conflict-of-interest legislation and its role in the corporatescandalsthathaverecentlyoccurredintheUnitedStates. IamgratefultoFrankParkin,whoistheeditorofthisseries,for givingmesomeveryhelpfulcriticism.IalsowishtothankPhilippe Schmitterforkindlyallowingmetousesomeunpublishedmaterial ontheconceptofinterestwhichheproducedintheearly1980s.For advice, inspiration and information about the concept of interest and its many uses, I finally also want to thank my friends and colleagues Patrik Aspers, Pierre Demeulenaere, Johan Heilbron, Victor Nee and Geir Øygarden. The book is dedicated to Mabel Berezin. R.S. 1 Interest and its Many Traditions A classical question in social science is ‘What causes people to act thewaythattheydo?’Anequallyclassicalansweris‘theirinterests’. Giventheimportanceoftheconceptofinterest,onewouldassume thatithasbeendiscussedquiteabitandalsothatthereexistssome clarityaboutitsmeaningandhowitshouldbeused.This,however, isnotthecase;andthisstudyis,asoftoday,thefullestthatexistsin English.Thereasonforthisneglectisnoteasytounderstand,butis perhaps related to the fact that the concept of interest played a fundamental role in analysing people’s behaviour long before modernsocialsciencecameintobeing,andisthereforepartofwhat is being taken for granted. The concept of interest is often and easily used in a number of different contexts, from everyday language to political and social science discourses. Its meaning may seem self-evident and in little needofdefinitionbeyondthestatementthatinterestisanimportant force that drives or determines the behaviour of people and of groups. We all know that people can be self-interested; that a country may have interests in other parts of the world; and that thereareplentyofinterestgroupsinpoliticallife.Thisflexibilityof the concept of interest – that it can so easily be used in many different contexts and to analyse many different phenomena – is, I will argue, one of its many positive qualities. There are, no doubt, some drawbacks to this flexibility as well – for example, that it makes the concept of interest difficult to nail down – but for the moment I want to continue on the theme of flexibility and its positive implications. First of all, there is the important fact that the concept of interest has been used, and is being used, in so many of the social sciences. It is a key concept in