PHD THESIS SUMMARY: Governing by carrot and stick: a genealogy of the incentive

Managers, politicians, and scientists frequently use the term 'incentive' in their explanations of human action. At the same time, individuals in the public and private sectors are now governed with the help of incentives: a bonus is an incentive for the banker to perform in an optimal way...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Erasmus journal for philosophy and economics 2014-10, Vol.7 (2), p.185
Main Author: Dix, Guus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
20th century
Behavior
Dissertations & theses
Economists
Incentives
Influence
Philosophy
Studies
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Managers, politicians, and scientists frequently use the term 'incentive' in their explanations of human action. At the same time, individuals in the public and private sectors are now governed with the help of incentives: a bonus is an incentive for the banker to perform in an optimal way; the introduction of market forces in healthcare is an incentive for healthcare providers to use tax payers' money efficiently; the public availability of information about school performance is an incentive for school administrators and teachers to work hard. In this dissertation, the author studies the incentive from a theoretical and normative perspective inspired by the work of the French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. To challenge the current self-evidence of the incentive as an explanatory term and instrument of power, he focuses on the contingency that permeates the transformations in nineteenth- and twentieth-century thoughts about and uses of the carrot and the stick.
ISSN:1876-9098