László Garai:

Identity Economics

An Alternative Economic Psychology

[In Hungarian]

Tas Editor, 2006. 294 pp.

 

 

The antecedents of this monograph are four editions of the one entitled Foundation of an Economic Psychology that has been published [in Hun­­garian] by the Hungarian Economic Society in 1990 and reprinted (in 1992) for teaching purposes by the Budapest Economic University. Its second, redacted edition has been published by the Attila Jozsef University (General Economic Psychology, 1996 [reprinted: 1997]). The third, enlarged and redacted edition: Attila Jozsef University Press, 1997 [reprinted: 1997]. The fourth edition: The human potential as capital: An approach by the economic psychology. “Aula” Economic University Press, 1998 [reprinted: 1999, 2000, 2001; an illegal reprint misentitled The human capital as potential: 2002]).

The mainstream psychology is based on a methodological individualism. The proposed monograph presents an alternative to that academism by approaching economic psychology (as well as some features of political psychology, socio-psycho-linguistics etc.) from the aspect of social interaction and social identity, as linked both to micro- and to macroeconomic issues.

I. General Economic Psychology

The economic psychology is claimed by the monograph to have emerged as a science about psycho­logic phe­no­mena turned into economic factors during a his­torical period labeled as second modernization and facing the necessity of producing human re­sour­ces at the cost of con­suming material resources.

The first chapter “The Economic Psychology Approach” presents an axiomatic model of the economic man and so­me contemporary reason for which the real economic activity does not corres­pond to that model. The psychology of behaviorism that corresponds to the “economic man’ model and three alternative psychologies (that of cog­ni­ti­ve psycho­logy, of psycho-analysis and the social psycho­logy) are presented in so­me de­tails. They are comparatively examined in their capacity to explain mar­ket and organizational economic activity of men. The problem of needs of an “eco­no­mic man” is evoked and a theory of specifically human basic need is pro­po­sed as a solution to that problem; the structure of the hypothesized need cor­res­ponds to that of a specifically human activity defined along both technical and social criteria.

The second chapter “Mediating Economic Transactions: The Psycho-Social Identity” makes a distinction between two kinds of psycho­lo­gic phe­nomena turned into economic factors: technical dispositions of maste­ring things' attributes and social dispositions of mastering persons' relations. It sta­tes that unlike the material production depending only on technical attributes of both producing and produced factors, the modern human production is de­ter­mi­ned also by the factors' social relations. These latters are dealt in terms of psy­cho­social identity that is presented as the key-con­cept of the economic psychology.

Psychosocial identity is considered to be produced by an elaboration of not at­tributes (whether psychological characteristics of a person or socio­lo­gi­cal charac­teristics of his status) but relations. This elaboration is the so­cial ca­tegorization. It is from the early child­hood on mediated by an un­con­scious pro­cess of semiosis in which the child's dif­fu­se vocal, motor, postural, va­so-mo­tor or other somatic, as well as developing be­havioral, verbal, intel­lec­tual and af­fective manifestations get sha­ped as signifying factors that are at­ta­ched to si­multaneously shaped social categories as their sig­nified factors so that si­mi­lar identity factors should be symbolized by simi­lar, and diffe­rent ones by dif­ferent symbols. In grown-up people this mecha­nism is a po­wer­ful one for di­verting their eco­no­mic behavior from the rationality norms of eco­no­mic man: this behavior's acts get a symbolic va­lue and, thus, their des­tiny is strongly influenced by that of social identity they symbolize. At the sa­­me ti­me, objects of the economic behavior get allocated, according to a ter­rito­rial mechanism, to one or another social category (whether it is repre­sen­ted by a large or small group or just one per­son); the possession enables ow­ner(s) to and, respectively, disables others from well-defined economic activities.

 

II. Special Economic Psychology

The second volume is a sample of application of the general economic psychology’s above findings to various issues of both market and organization behavior.

The third chapter “Managing Material and Human Resources” deals with the economic psychology of manufacturing and purchasing goods, marketing and financing activity, management and development transactions, organizational and socializational behavior. Information management and knowledge economy are dealt with in more details, as approached by economic psychology. In contrast to economics, econo­mic psy­cho­logy does not consider information management as a merely control pro­cess but as one of the real processes in that system; on the other hand, in contrast to psy­cho­lo­gy, the economic psychology considers the knowledge economy a social and not an individual performan­ce, the monograph ar­gues. While the social iden­ti­ty is considered to be the main fac­tor me­dia­ting bet­ween individual and social matters, as well as between cont­rol and real processes, it is argued that at the same time it creates a new duality: between information and knowledge, on one hand, identity itself and the deed investing someone with that identity. This duality becomes consummate in that of contemporary universities with their bifurcation of the knowledge supply and the diploma supply.

The fourth chapter “Managing Human Resources: The Second Moderniza­tion”. The modernization is defined as a generalized tendency of artificial inter­ven­tion by the socio-economic system into na­tural processes in order to manufacture conditions that are necessary for its own functioning. Du­ring a first period, in the 18-19th century the modernization meant, on one hand, manufac­tu­ring the material fac­tors the system depended on, and, on the other, making the system independent of the human pheno­me­na that had not been produced by itself. However, from the end of the 19th century onwards the actual so­cio-economic sys­tem's running has no longer been indepen­dent of the faculties and needs effective in the popu­lation, hence a second modernization imposed upon the socio-economic sys­tem the necessity of manufacturing (and not only exploiting) human (and not only material) conditions of its functioning.

This necessity is analyzed in terms of human capital invested either by one of the interes­ted parties (whether the one supplying the human poten­tial or the one demanding it) or the state. Possession relations of human ca­pital are analyzed in details, sin­ce the ca­pital invested by the state into the for­ma­tion of a per­son's po­tential will be organically integrated in his bo­dy and mind, and will be insepa­ra­ble from the physical and mental faculties that we­re origi­nal­ly gi­ven to him.

In the aspect of manufacturing human conditions are investigated the tota­li­ta­rian sta­tes. They are clai­med to di­rect­ly apply the stra­­tegies of the 19-century lar­ge scale material pro­­ces­sing in­dus­t­ry in establishing a lar­ge scale hu­man pro­ces­­sing industry in 20th cen­tu­ry. It deals with that human condition, too, that is repre­sen­ted by the social identity marked by either competition or monopoly, a perfect (i.e. e., not dis­tur­bed by any monopoly) competition being as important a condition for a market economic sys­tem as is a perfect (i.e. e., not disturbed by any competition) monopoly for a planned economic organization.

Paradoxical consequences of such a hu­man pro­ces­­sing industry are evoked. When the relations of either competition or monopoly are concerned, the intact juxtaposition of both of them without any bias is nothing but their competition. On the other hand, when either the competition gets eradicated from a socio-economic system (conside­ring the necessities of a planned organization, as is the case for the Bolshevik type totalitarian sta­te), or the monopoly gets extirpated (in order to fit the needs of a market, as in case of a Fascist, a national-socialist kind totalitarian sta­te), the manufactured product is straight a monopoly.

However, the main difference between two types of totali­ta­rian sta­tes is dealt with in terms of difference between is­sues of that human processing in­dustry: those of a fascist type are claimed to establish a large scale industry for peo­ples attributes, while in Bol­she­vik type totalitarian societies their relations, too, get manufactured.

The fifth chapter “The Bolshevik-Type Version of the Second Modernization”. Bolshevik type societies, instead of being investigated from either an ideological or a politological aspect, are approached, too, by the economic psychology. For such an approach, both structure and functioning of those societies are tested from the point of view of a human capital economy within the frame of the second modernization.

The second modernization’s basic dilemma is presented: the mo­re high­ly qualified human po­tential is involved the larger and lar­ger amount of capital is required for its manufacturing – and, at the same ti­me, the lar­ger and larger autonomy is required for that human potential's run­ning. As far as the required capital is ensured by the involvement of the Sta­te the autonomy turns out to be in short supply, but if the aspect of the au­to­nomy makes the state get out from the human business by charging the costs of human de­velop­ment to the individual's account then capital will be scarce.

Therefore the organizing principle of these societies are not only bureaucracy setting social power to the office a person incidentally occupies but also charisma that sets it directly to the person as referred to his record. Being originated from 20th century's radical anti-bureaucratic (illegal) mass movements, the charisma provides not only a leader but the whole headquarter of the revolutionary movement and even the whole party as its vanguard with a social power independently from anyone’s office. On the other hand, as far as this collective charisma is concerned, in Bolshevik-type structures the person gets (and loses) his glamour by being invested with (and, resp., dismissed from) a charisma just like with (from) an office: in order to get the social identity that is independent from any appointment one has to be appointed. This procedure of bureaucratically appointing someone to a collective charisma gets institutionalized in the Nomenklatura that links to each other the status of the functionary and the identity of the commissar. Such features of the Bolshevik type social structures, together with a self-establishing machinery of the de­mocratic centralism for the identity of those belonging to the Bolshevik type Party are claimed by the monograph to be psycho-economic devices for keeping in operation a peculiar processing industry whose final mass-pro­duct was, for a totalitarian state supplying the capital needed, a rather peculiar version of the autonomy needed: the complicity of the system's victims. Both the functioning and crash of the Bolshevik type system are analyzed from the point of view of a paradoxical self-establishing psychosocial effect (as opposed to a self-undermining paradoxical effect of the fascist type tota­li­ta­rian sta­tes' functioning).

Treating the Bolshevik-type organiza­tions’ structural dualism (that used to be best known as a “state and party leadership”) leads on to the closing sixth chapter “From the Post-Bolshevik Structures toward an Information-Processing Large-Scale Industry”. The Bolshevik-ty­pe twin-fea­tures are compared to the twin-structures of the information-processing (e.g., to the dua­lity of the information's bearer and its place value). The Bolshevik-type structure that is made up of con­cen­tric circles is studied as an information processing device in which in­formation may tra­vel exclu­si­vely in centripetal and centrifugal directions whi­le its path is strictly blocked between the neighbo­ring but separate peripheral units of each ring (e.g. the primary party organizations). In such a struc­ture the center has a perfect control over the totality of the output informations; hence, this cen­ter is enabled to provide 1., the perfect protection of data; 2., the total control of addres­sees and 3., a virtual periphery set up around any of the concentric rings which can at any moment be sub­stituted by the center for the real one (it is the function of the Ministry of Truth in Orwell's 1984).

In this closing chapter of the monograph psycho-economical conditions of an in­for­mation eco­nomics are analyzed. The econo­mic psy­cho­logy

in contrast to economics, does not consider infor­mation processing as a merely control pro­cess but as one of the real processes in that system; and

in contrast to psy­cho­lo­gy, it considers in­for­ma­tion processing a social and not an individual per­for­man­ce,

the monograph ar­gues. Psy­cho-economical peculiarities of in­for­ma­tion’s property relations, as well as ap­propriation and alienation ope­ra­tions are analyzed within modern information management. The social iden­ti­ty pro­cessed by social categorization is considered the main fac­tor me­dia­ting bet­ween social and individual issues, as well as between cont­rol and real processes.

A new general tendency of materializing that so­cial cate­go­rization in societies' new splitting in an elite and a mass is criti­cal­ly analyzed as a kind of a radical settling of the second modernization’s basic dilemma: this time both the capital required for manufacturing a high­ly qualified human po­tential and the autonomy that is required for its run­ning get focu­sed on the si­de of the elite, while on the side of the mass there is both factor's lack. This asymmetry of identities within organization is paralleled by the monograph to markets with asymmetric information (Akerlof–Spence–Stiglitz).

 

Key words: social identity; social categorization; identity markers; document;
Behaviorism vs. Cognitive Psychology; Psychoanalysis vs. Social Psychology; psychosocial relations vs. attributes
mar­ket behavior vs. organizational economic behavior; money vs. social status;
second modernization; human resources processing; human capital;
Bolshevik type vs. fascist type totalitarian societies; infor­mation management

 

Chapters of the monograph and some further texts related to its topics and available in non-Hungarian

To the first chapter:  The Economic Psychology Approach

Problems of specifically human needs.

French version: Recherches Internatio­na­les: Psychologie. 1966/9. (51). 42-60.

Russian version: Voprosy Psikhologii. 1966/3. 61-73.

Spanish version In: A. Luria, A. Massucco Costa, R. Zazzo and B. Teplov: Problemá­tica científica de la psicología actual. Editorial Orbelus. Buenos Aires, 1968. 63-85)

Interpretation of needs in foreign language psychology and the question of moti­ves of a scientific activity [in Russian]. In: M. Iaroshevsky (ed.): Problems of the scientific creativity in the contempora­ry psychology, "Nauka" Publi­sher [Publi­shing house of the Soviet Academy of Sciences]. Moscow, 1971. 224-233.

Hypothesis on the Motivation of Scientific Creativity. XIII International Cong­ress of the History of Science. USSR, Moscow, August 18-24, 1971. "Nau­ka" Publisher [Publishing house of the Soviet Academy of Sciences], Moscow, 1971. 224-233.

An invited lecture to the Congress' symposium "On the personality of the scientist in the history of science". Applying the theory presented by the Personality dynamics to the analysis of parallel discoveries of Bolyai and Lobachevsky it argues for the individual creative idea being determined by the social history even in the most abstract mathematics.

Strength and Weakness of Psychological Science. International Social Scien­ce Journal. 25. (1973). 447-460. French version: La puissance et l'impuissance de la science psychologi­que. Revue Interna­tionale des Sciences Sociales. 25 (1973). 491-504.

The destiny of the contemporary psychological science is considered by the paper on the background of the socio-economic system's necessity of manufacturing (and not only exploiting) human (and not only material) conditions of its functioning (second modernization hypothesis). A technological application of this science (in cultivating skills) is compared to its ideological application (in cultivating attitudes).

Conflict and the Economic Paradigm. Dialectics and Humanism. 2. (1977). 47-58.

Class conflicts are represented at two levels simultaneously: at an object-level about the distribution of resources and at a meta-level about the rules of dealing with conflicts of object-level. The paper argues for all macro- and micro-social conflicts in the society being constructed according to this paradigm.

Marx' Social Theory and the Concept of Man in Social Psychology. (Co-author: Ferenc Eros) Studia Psychologica. 20/1. (1978). 5-10.

Towards a Social Psychology of Personality: Development and Current Perspec­ti­ves of a School of Social Psychology in Hungary (Co-authors: F. Eros, K. Ja­ro, M. Kocski and S. Veres). So­cial Science Information. 18/1. (1979). 137-166.

Report on the research work of the authors' team in '70s in the Institute for Psychology of Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Main arguments of a production-centered meta-theory as opposed to the both naturalistic and spiritualistic one and of a theory elaborated by that team in a Vygotskian frame of reference.

Paradoxes of the social categorization [in French]. Recherches de Psychologie Sociale. 3. (1981). 131-141. (Comments of R. Pagès: Recherches de Psychologie Sociale. 3. [1981]. 143-151)

Marxian Personality Psychology. In: Harré-Lamb (eds.): The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology. Basil Blackwell Publisher. 1983. 364-366.

Toward a psycho-economic theory of social identity [in French]. Recherches Sociologiques. 1984. 313-335.

Social Identity: Cognitive Dissonance or Paradox? New Ideas in Psychology. 4:3. (1986) 311-322. (Comments: G. Jahoda. New Ideas in Psychology. 6:2. [1988] 211-212. Reply: The case of Attila József: A reply to Gustav Jahoda. New Ideas in Psychology. 6:2. [1988] 213-217.

Determining economic activity in a post-capitalist system. Journal of Economic Psychology. 8. [1987] 77-90.)

Contends that the main tendency of (both planned and market) post-capitalist system is considered to be the production of personal (and not only material) conditions of func­tioning of that system. That includes not only production of technical disposition to master things but also that of social disposition to master (or, at least, be superior to) other per­sons. These are as important organizing factors for an economic system producing its per­sonal conditions as are value in use and value in exchange for the one producing its mate­rial conditions. Typical cases are cited when the economic activity is not determined by the pri­ce of the item produced by it, but, rather, by the social identity of the producing person.

To the psychology of economic rationality. In: Understanding economic behavior. 12th An­nual Collo­quium of IAREP, the International Association for Re­search in Economic Psy­cholo­gy. Handelhøjskolen I Århus, 1987. Vol. I. 29-41.

Argues for the impossibility of deriving rationality criteria from substantionally given human needs. Instead, it proposes a Lewin-type formal approach to the structure of human activity whose ends, whatever they are, become quasi-need and determine the value of other objects becoming means or barriers, depending on their position in that field. For the specifically human activity taking into consideration a further factor structuring the field is proposed: taboos. Thus, the formal rationality criterion is: gaining ends in spite of barriers that are surmounted by means got in spite of taboos.

Why bureaucratic control over economy is not that rational? Paper presented to the 13th Annual Colloquium of IAREP [International Association for Research in Economic Psychology] (Louvain, 1988).

While production of material resources is determined only by technical attributes of both producing and produced factors, effects of production by a modern socio-economic system of its personal resources depends on those factors social relations as well. Bureaucracy is considered as a power of mastering the production of personal resources through the institutionalization of these relations. 

Foundation of an economic psychology. In: T. Tyszka and P. Gasparsky [eds]: Ho­mo Oeconomicus: Presuppositions & Facts. Procee­dings of the 14th IAREP Annual Colloquium. International Association for Research in Eco­nomic Psychology. September 24-27, 1989. Kazimierz Dolny, Poland. 333-346.

Claims that the "human nature" in various socio-economic systems is different: 1. In a strict market economy it is close to the one described by the notion of "homo oeconomicus" and scientifically investigated by a behaviorist psychology: in any choice situation the individual chooses what s/he has preferred the most. 2. In an economic system shifting from the strict market toward a mixed economy the agents' "nature" comes much closer to what the cognitivistic psychology considers as such: the individual starts to prefer what s/he has previously chosen. 3. In a strictly planned economy the human content expressed by the economic behavior corresponds to the description by the psychoanalysis: individuals instead of consciously making choices unconsciously consent to being chosen by a supra-individual system that is hold by the "father" but interiorized by the super-ego of the "sons". 4. Finally, for an economic system that is shifting from this strict planning toward a mixed economy instead of agents' "nature" we have their "culture" described by the social psychology: there turns out not to be any valid possibility of establishing an order of preference among them.

Another crisis in the psychology: A possible motive for the Vygotsky-boom (co-author: M. Kocski). Journal of Russian and East-European Psychology. 33:1. [1994] 82-94. – Full text. Italian version: Ancora una crisi nella psicologia: una possibile spiegazione per il "boom" di Vygotskij. Studi di Psicologia dell'Educazione. 1994/1-2-3. 141-150. Enlarged Russian version: Voprosy Filosofii. 1997/4. 86-96. – Full text

Vygotskian implications: On the meaning and its brain. A keynote paper. In: Mezhdunarodnaia konferentsiia "Kul'turno-istorichesky podkhod: Razvitiie gumanitarnykh nauk I obrazovaniia". Proceedings. Rossiiskaia Akademiia obrazovaniia i Rossiisky Gosudarstvenny gumanitarny universitet. Moskva, 21-24 oktiabria 1996. No. 3. – Full text. Russian version: In: Subject, Cognition, Activity: Dedicated to V. A. Lektorsky’s 70th anniversary. Moscow: Canon+, 2002. 590-612.

Vassily Davydov and vicissitudes of our theory [in Russian]. Bulletin of the International Association "Developmental Education". 5. 20-26. – Full text

To the second chapter:  Mediating Economic Transactions – The Psycho-Social Identity

Conflict and the Economic Paradigm. Dialectics and Humanism. 2. (1977). 47-58.

Class conflicts are represented at two levels simultaneously: at an object-level about the distribution of resources and at a meta-level about the rules of dealing with conflicts of object-level. The paper argues for all macro- and micro-social conflicts in the society being constructed according to this paradigm.

Paradoxes of the social categorization [in French]. Recherches de Psychologie Sociale. 3. (1981). 131-141. (Comments of R. Pagès: Recherches de Psychologie Sociale. 3. [1981]. 143-151)

Toward a psycho-economic theory of social identity [in French]. Recherches Sociologiques. 1984. 313-335.

Social Identity: Cognitive Dissonance or Paradox? New Ideas in Psychology. 4:3. (1986) 311-322. Comments: G. Jahoda. New Ideas in Psychology. 6:2. [1988] 211-212. Reply: The case of Attila József: A reply to Gustav Jahoda. New Ideas in Psychology. 6:2. [1988] 213-217.

On the cognitive dissonance as emerging between the social identity of persons and that of their acts. Paradoxical consequences of the two identities' double bind are analyzed: without doing A no one may pretend to the identity B and without being subjected to this law no one may pretend to the identity B either.

The principle of social relations and the principle of activity (co-author: M. Köcski). Soviet Psychology. 1989/4. 50-69.

The brain and the mechanism of psychosocial phenomena. Journal of Russian and East-European Psychology. 1994/6. 71-91.

An attempt at the solution of dilemma: How psychosocial phenomena being of an inter-individual character may have their organ while the brain has an intra-individual character. The paper argues for mainstream considerations based exclusively on individual organism being transcended both by going beyond the individual (toward a supra-individual structure) and beyond the organism (toward an extra-organismic one). Author derives his arguments from various sources: Vygotsky school's theory of functional organs, Gibson's ecological theory of perception, ethology's empirical data about territorial behavior of populations and Szentágothai's model of organizing neuronal modules. The paper presents for the K. Popper's "World 3' a possible monistic interpretation that derives meanings from the functioning of supra-individual economic structures instead of the individual's brain structures. An enlarged version of the full text

The price of excellence. Inquiries into the Nature and Causes of Behavior. Proceedings of the XXIV. Annual Colloquium of the International Association for Research in Economic Psychology. Belgirate, 1999. 750-759. – Full text

To the third chapter:  Managing Material and Human Resources

Hypothesis on the Motivation of Scientific Creativity. XIII International Cong­ress of the History of Science. USSR, Moscow, August 18-24, 1971. "Nau­ka" Publisher [Publishing house of the Soviet Academy of Sciences], Moscow, 1971. 224-233.

Interpretation of needs in foreign language psychology and the question of moti­ves of a scientific activity [in Russian]. In: M. Iaroshevsky (ed.): Problems of the scientific creativity in the contempora­ry psychology, "Nauka" Publi­sher [Publishing house of the Soviet Acad. of Sciences]. Moscow, 1971. 224-233.

Towards an economic psychology of consumption. Trends in world economy, 70. Con­sump­tion and development: economic, social and technical aspects. (1992) 35-43.

The paper argues for the main motive of the purchase being not of biologic (i.e. referred to a need satisfaction) but of social (signifying social identity) character. This latter represents not only ends for the purchase but means as well that legitimates, together with the payment, the claim for an article, and especially on a seller's market.

To the fourth chapter: Managing Human Resources: The Second Modernization

Determining economic activity in a post-capitalist system. Journal of Economic Psychology. 8. [1987] 77-90.)

Contends that the main tendency of (both planned and market) post-capitalist system is considered to be the production of personal (and not only material) conditions of functioning of that system. That includes not only production of technical disposition to master things but also that of social disposition to master (or, at least, be superior to) other persons. These are as important organizing factors for an economic system producing its personal conditions as are value in use and value in exchange for the one producing its material conditions. Typical cases are cited when the economic activity is not determined by the price of the item produced by it, but, rather, by the social identity of the person producing it.

To the fifth chapter: The Bolshevik-Type Version of the Second Modernization

Why bureaucratic control over economy is not that rational? Paper presented to the 13th Annual Colloquium of IAREP [International Association for Research in Economic Psychology] (Louvain, 1988).

While production of material resources is determined only by technical attributes of both producing and produced factors, effects of production by a modern socio-economic system of its personal resources depends on those factors social relations as well. Bureaucracy is considered as a power of mastering the production of personal resources through the institutionalization of these relations. 

The Bureaucratic State Governed by an Illegal Movement: Soviet-Type societies and Bolshevik-Type Parties. Political Psychology. 10:1. (1991) 165-179.

Soviet type societies evolve the universe of their ideological appearances in relation not to matter as in a capitalist society (according to Marx: reification) but to persons. Traditional Marxian criticism of such an ideology claims persons in Soviet type societies to be but per­sonifications of positions in a bureaucratic structure. The paper argues that the organizing principle of these societies is not bureaucracy but charisma originated from 20th century's radical anti-bureaucratic mass movements. The social power that is set not to the positions persons occupy but to persons directly gets provided in those societies' structures not only to a charismatic leader but to the whole headquarter, the whole party as a van of the revolutionary movement and even the whole revolutionary movement. The paper analyzes the paradoxical structure of that collective charisma: the person gets (and loses) his glamour that is independent from his office by being invested with (and, resp., dismissed from) it just like with (from) an office. Democratic centralism is described as the principle of such a paradoxical organization where the "Centrum" gets its social power by being put in its charisma by a "Demos" being put in its one by that social power. The connection of such a paradoxical structure with the mass-production of social relations is analyzed.

The Bolshevik-type psycho-economic system: An essay on a paradoxical psy­cho­logic structure in economy. Paper presented to joint meeting of IAREP [International Association for Research in Economic Psychology] and SASE [Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics]. (Stockholm, 1991).

About the political system's shift in Hungary: Considerations of a social psychologist [in Russian]. Vengersky Meridian. 1991/1. 69-79.

The Bolshevik-type psycho-economic system: An essay on a paradoxical psychologic structure in economy [in Russian]. PolIs 1993/1. 72-76.

To the sixth chapter

About the notion of information in the research on living systems [in Russian]. In: Philosophical questions of biology. "Nauka" Publisher [Publishing house of the Soviet Academy of Sciences], Moscow. 1973.

Theses on Human Capital. Full text

 

About the author

Szövegdoboz:

Prof. Laszlo Garai, doctor of Hunga­rian Academy of Sciences born in 1935 (Bu­dapest). Gradu­ated from Faculty of Arts of Budapest Universi­ty in 1959.

Research: Institute for Phi­losophy (Bu­dapest, 1964-70); Institute for the History of Natural Science and Technolo­gy (Mos­cow, 1969-70); In­stitute for Psychology (Bu­dapest, 1970-2002, foun­ding head of Dept of Vygotskian research in theoreti­cal, social and eco­nomic psychology – 1971-81); European La­borato­ry of Social Psy­cho­logy (Paris, 1971, 1973 and 1977), Hun­ga­rian Scientific Research Foundation (Budapest, since 1990).

Teaching: Moscow State University (Russia, 1968); Nice University (France, since 1981); Ca­­lifornia State University (USA, 1991); Budapest Economic University (Hungary, 1988-1997); University of Szeged (since 1994, founding head of Dept of Economic Psychology – 1997-2000; head of doctoral school in economics – since 1999). Szechenyi professor (2000-2003).

Public functions, board membership, organizational activity: Psychologi­cal Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1970-1985). Commit­tee of Scientific Qualification (psy­chology – 1970-1973). Organizer of the “Visegrad Mee­ting” of the European Society of Ex­perimental Social Psychology (1974). Foun­ding pre­sident of the Hungarian Association of Economic Psychology (1988-1995). Ad­visory board of the Minister of Finance (1991-1994). Advisory committee of Journal of Russian and East-European Psychology  (since 1992). Or­gani­zer of an in­ter­national scientific conference initiated by the Gorbachev Foundation on the subject “Origins of the persistence of Bolshevik-type totalitarian structures” (Moscow, 1993)