Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and StatesAn innovator in contemporary thought on economic and political development looks here at decline rather than growth. Albert O. Hirschman makes a basic distinction between alternative ways of reacting to deterioration in business firms and, in general, to dissatisfaction with organizations: one, “exit,” is for the member to quit the organization or for the customer to switch to the competing product, and the other, “voice,” is for members or customers to agitate and exert influence for change “from within.” The efficiency of the competitive mechanism, with its total reliance on exit, is questioned for certain important situations. As exit often undercuts voice while being unable to counteract decline, loyalty is seen in the function of retarding exit and of permitting voice to play its proper role. The interplay of the three concepts turns out to illuminate a wide range of economic, social, and political phenomena. As the author states in the preface, “having found my own unifying way of looking at issues as diverse as competition and the two-party system, divorce and the American character, black power and the failure of ‘unhappy’ top officials to resign over Vietnam, I decided to let myself go a little.” |
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User Review - ben_a - LibraryThingHirshman's analysis of the role of exit and voice in institutional change is, I suspect, more referenced than read. There's a lot of not terribly good economics here, which lards up an already thin ... Read full review
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Visit http://www.unn.edu.ng/department/political-science or http://www.unn.edu.ng/department/economics for such intriguing works....
Contents
Introduction and Doctrinal Background | 1 |
Exit | 21 |
Voice | 30 |
A Special Difficulty in Combining Exit | 44 |
How Monopoly Can be Comforted | 55 |
On Spatial Duopoly and the Dynamics | 62 |
A Theory of Loyalty | 76 |
Exit and Voice in American Ideology | 106 |
The Elusive Optimal Mix of Exit and Voice | 120 |
A A simple diagrammatic representation | 129 |
B The choice between voice and exit | 132 |
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Common terms and phrases
able achieve action activities actual alternative American assumed become behavior better Chapter combination competition concept considerable consumer cost course curve customers decision decline demand deterioration develop direction discontent discussion drop economic effective efficiency example existence exit and voice expected experience extent fact fail figure firm forces function given Hence higher important improvement increase indifference individual influence initiation institutions interest later lead less look loss loyalist behavior loyalty maximizing means measures mechanism monopoly move normally once option organization particularly party performance play policies political possible present Press probability profits quality decline range reaction reason recuperation remain requires result role schools session severe initiation shown shows similar situation social society subjects substitute threat tion traditional turn variety voice option
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States ACLS Humanities E-Book Volume 25 of Harvard paperback ; HP25 History e-book project |
| Author | Albert O. Hirschman |
| Contributor | American Council of Learned Societies |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Harvard University Press, 1970 |
| ISBN | 0674276604, 9780674276604 |
| Length | 162 pages |
| Subjects | › › Business & Economics / Economics / General Business & Economics / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |