Reciprocity, Altruism and the Civil Society: In praise of heterogeneity

173 Pages·2008·1.21 MB·English

by  Luigino Bruni

Reciprocity, Altruism and the
Civil Society
The main emphasis of this new book by Luigino Bruni is a praise of
heterogeneity, arguing that society works when different people are able to
cooperate in many different ways. The author engages in a novel approach
to reciprocity looking at its different forms in society, from cautious or
contractual interactions to the reciprocity of friendship, to unconditional
behaviour.
Bruni’s historical–methodological analysis of reciprocity is a way of exam-
ining the interface between political economy and the issue of sociality,
generally characterized by ‘two hundred years of solitude’ of the homo oeco-
nomicus. This historical analysis exposes an absence and this book looks at
the reasons why among the many forms of reciprocity present in the civil life
economics has chosen to deal just with the simplest ones (contracts and
repeated self-interested interactions). The second part of the book is an
analysis (with basically repeated and evolutionary games) of the interactions
of the three forms of reciprocity faced with a fourth strategy; i.e. the non-
reciprocity.
This book will be of great interest to students and researchers engaged
with the nature and history of reciprocity and of social interaction and the
methodology of evolutionary game theory.
Luigino Bruni is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of
Milan-Bicocca. He is the author of Civil Happiness, also published by
Routledge.
Routledge Advances in Game Theory
Edited by Christian Schmidt
1. Game Theory and Economic Analysis
A quiet revolution in economics
Christian Schmidt
2. Negotiation Games
Applying game theory by bargaining and arbitration
Steven J. Brams
3. The Topology of the 2 × 2 Games
A new periodic table
David Robinson and David Goforth
4. Reciprocity, Altruism and the Civil Society
In praise of heterogeneity
Luigino Bruni
Reciprocity, Altruism and the
Civil Society
In praise of heterogeneity
Luigino Bruni
First published 2008
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Copyright © 2008 Luigino Bruni
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Catalogue in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bruni, Luigino, 1966–
Reciprocity, altruism and the civil society : in praise of heterogeneity /
Luigino Bruni.
p. cm. – (Routledge studies in the history of economics ; 94)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Economics–Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Altruism–Economic
aspects. I. Title.
HB72.B78 2008
174–dc22
2007048232
ISBN 0-203-92666-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 10: 0–415–42858–0 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0–203–92666–8 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–42858–3 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–203–92666–6 (ebk)
This book is dedicated to my family: my first school of
reciprocity, in all its forms.

Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction ix
1 The current debate on economics and reciprocity 1
2 Homo oeconomicus’ two hundred years of solitude 13
3 A first form of reciprocity: cooperation without benevolence 27
4 Reciprocity as philía 38
5 Unconditional reciprocity 46
6 Dynamics of reciprocity in a heterogeneous world 59
7 Three is better than two 68
8 In praise of heterogeneity 79
9 Reciprocity is one, but reciprocities are many 86
Appendices 98
Notes 124
Bibliography 149
Index 155
Acknowledgements
This book not only speaks about reciprocity, but also has been an experience
of reciprocity – as many books usually are. Reciprocity with many scholars,
colleagues, friends and also with people met for a few moments in a train or in
a congress, or maybe listened on the radio. Then it is impossible to thank
everyone. Some of them, however, have had a direct role in the preparation of
the work.
First of all a special thank to Alessandra Smerilli, a young economist with
a special gift for the mathematical and formal reasoning, who has been fun-
damental for the technical chapters and, especially, for the Appendix. She is
an actual co-author of some key analytical passages of the book.
I would thank Benedetto Gui, with whom I have discussed at length
the entire book. The discussions with Bob Sudgen and Stefano Zamagni,
especially for their criticisms (that only in part I have been able to endorse),
have been precious moments of verification of the controversial method-
ological choices performed in this volume.
Thanks also to Leo Andringa, Angelo Antoci, Nicolò Bellanca, Sergio
Beraldo, Luca Crivelli, Pierpaolo Donati, Mario Gilli, Shaun Hargreaves-
Heap, Lorna Gold, Alessandra Malini, Salvatore Natoli, Vittorio Pelligra,
Pier Luigi Porta, Luca Stanca, Nicholas J. Theocarakis, Giuseppe Maria
Zanghì and Luca Zarri.
Finally, I would like to say thank you to the colleagues of the Dipartimento
di Economia Politica of my University (Milano-Bicocca), the members of the
‘Scuola Abbà’ (Rome) and the actors of the Economy of Communion project
of the Focolare Movement where I find most of the vital inspirations for
my work.
A first version of this book has been published in Italian, Reciprocità.
Dinamiche di cooperazione, economia e società civile, 2006, by Bruno
Mondadori, Milan. I thank the chief executive, Dr. Sandro D’Alessandro, for
the permission of translation.
The translation into English has been made by Valeria Jacovelli who did
her work with an exceptional care and competence: my final warm thanks is
for her.
Introduction
To feel much for others and little for ourselves ... constitutes the perfection of
human nature ... As to love our neighbour as we love ourselves is the great
law of Christianity, so it is the great precept of nature to love ourselves only as
we love our neighbour.
Adam Smith
Civil life is essentially a matter of reciprocity. Cooperation, friendship, con-
tracts, pacts, family, love and even conflict, all are relationships very different
from one another, but sharing basically one characteristic: all are forms of
reciprocity. The multidimensional nature of reciprocity is the idea that has
inspired this book: reciprocity is, at the same time, one and many; civil society
flourishes if and when the different forms of reciprocity are seen as comple-
mentary instead of competitive or substitute one another.
In the following pages I shall look at reciprocity with a broad glance:
linking my reasoning to that of Aristotle and Genovesi (among the few com-
panions I met along the way), with reciprocity I mean the ‘bond of society’.
This bond is by nature plural, nevertheless its various expressions are joined
with giving-and-receiving, taking-and-giving, going-and-returning, i.e. a
mutual interpersonal structure.
Aristotle, for example, uses the expression antipeponthos1 (α´ντιπεπονθ(cid:10)(cid:11))
in order to express both commercial and civil relationships, because in all
relations of the polis (πολι(cid:11)) exists an idea of proportionality and mutuality.2
Similar is the Latin etymology of the word. Reciprocal comes from reciprocus
or reciprocitate, which means ‘returning the same way, alternating’, reci-
procus, where reci is from recus (from re- ‘back’ + -cus, adjective formation),
and procus (from pro- ‘forward’ + -cus, adjective formation).3 An Etymological
dictionary translates reciprocity as ‘retrogression, alternation, ebb’ or ‘move
back and forth’.4
Starting from these ancient etymologies, I have tried to overcome the
contraposition – that characterizes the modern debate in social sciences –
among principles, i.e. reciprocity vs market relations, or gift vs contract, a
contraposition strictly linked to others, and more fundamental, between
market and civil society, community and society.