From gift relationships to quasi-markets: an odyssey along the policy paths of altruism and egoism

Abstract

In this chapter, Robert Pinker explores the conditionality and ‘mix’ of altruism and egoism and provides theoretical and rational rather than ideological or doctrinaire justifications for welfare pluralism. He begins by discussing The Price of Blood, a monograph that reviewed the arguments for and against paying blood donors and developing a role for competitive markets in the sale and purchase of blood products. Pinker challenges Richard Titmuss's analysis of the moral qualities that underpin exchange relationships in his 1970 book The Gift Relationship. He also reflects on his works Social Theory and Social Policy (1971) and The Idea of Welfare (1979) which, together with The Gift Relationship and Julian Le Grand's Motivation, Agency, and Public Policy (2003), illustrate the ways in which the normative debate about the ends and means of social policy and its entire institutional framework has changed.