Generate QR code
Open Access
Subscription Access
The Moral Nature of Debtand the Making of Responsible Debtor
https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2015-3-28-45
Abstract
The significance of debt relations is constantly growing in the present-day world, so do economic problems related to debt. Credit relationships on market are usually treated as morally neutral despite the fact that debt generates a number of moral contradictions. This paper suggests an understanding of debt that draws on the anthropological theory of gift. It enables to expose the moral content of the utilitarian market exchange as compared to gift exchange and to differentiate between various forms of debt. This approach is used for analyzing consumer credit and for demonstrating that debtor’s behavior is paradoxically determined by striving to avoid the moral obligations of debt. The main moral imperatives are indicated that govern consumer credit - independence and necessity, calculativeness and quantification. This article demonstrates that making the borrower responsible for growing debt makes credit burden increasing rather than restraints it.
About the Author
G. Yudin
National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia)
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
References
1. Abolafia M. (2003). Markets as cultures: An ethnographic approach. Ekonomicheskaya Sociologiya, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 63—72. (In Russian).
2. Baudrillard J. (2007). For a critique of the political economy of the sign. Moscow: Akademicheskii Proekt. (In Russian).
3. Bourdieu P. (2001). The logic of practice. Saint-Petersburg: Aletheia. (In Russian).
4. Weber M. (1990). Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. In: M. Weber. Selected writings. Moscow: Progress. (In Russian).
5. Godelier M. (2007). The riddle of the gift. Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura; RAN. (In Russian).
6. Guseva A. (2012). Into the red: The birth of the credit card market in postcommunist Russia. Moscow: HSE Publ. (In Russian).
7. Kuzina O. (2009). Financial literacy among the youngsters. Monitoring Obschestvennogo Mneniya, No. 4, pp. 157—177. (In Russian).
8. Kuzina O. (2013). The analysis of credit card usage and debt load in Russia. Dengi i Kredit, No. 11, pp. 30—36. (In Russian).
9. Malinowski B. (2004 [1922]). Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Moscow: ROSSPEN. (In Russian).
10. Mauss M. (2011). The gift. In: M. Mauss. Societies. Exchange. Personality. Writings in social anthropology. Moscow: KDU. (In Russian).
11. Nietzsche F. (1990). On the genealogy of morals. In: F. Nietzsche. Selected works. Moscow: Mysl. Vol. 2, pp. 407—524. (In Russian).
12. Sahlins M. (1999). Stone age economics. Moscow: OGI. (In Russian).
13. Semenova M., Rodina V. (2012). Credits beyond banking sector: rationing or choosing borrower? Bankovskii Riteil, Vol. 4, No. 28, pp. 39—54. (In Russian).
14. Strebkov D. (2004). Main types and factors of credit behavior of population in present-day Russia. Voprosy Economiki, No. 2, pp. 109—128. (In Russian).
15. Strebkov D. (2007). Social aspects of credit behavior of population. Sociologicheskii Zhurnal, No. 2, pp. 83—102. (In Russian).
16. Arthur C. (2012). Financial literacy education: Neoliberalism, the consumer and the citizen. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
17. Attanasio O. (1999). Consumption. In: J. B. Taylor, M. Woodford (eds.). Handbook of macroeconomics. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 741-812.
18. Barth F. (2004). Economic spheres in darfur. In: R. Firth (ed.). Themes in economic anthropology. ASA Monographs, No. 6. Abingdon: Routledge.
19. Bertola G., Disney R., Grant C. (2006). The Economics of consumer credit demand and supply. In: G. Bertola, R. Disney, C. Grant (eds.). The economics of consumer credit. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 1-26.
20. Bohannan P. (1955) Some principles of exchange and investment among Tiv. American Ethnologist, Vol. 57, No. 1, Part 1, pp. 60-70.
21. Calder L. (1999) Financing the american dream: A cultural history of consumer credit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
22. Callon M., Muniesa F. (2005). Economic markets as calculative devices. Organization Studies, Vol. 26, No. 8, pp. 1229-1250.
23. Carruthers B. (2009). Trust And Credit. In: K. Cook, M. Levi, R. Hardin (eds.). Whom can we trust?: How groups, networks, and institutions make trust possible. N. Y.: Russell Sage Foundation, pp. 219-248.
24. Clayton J. (2000). The Global Debt Bomb. N. Y.: M.E. Sharpe. Colander D. et al. (2009). The financial crisis and the systemic failure of academic economics. Kiel Working Papers, No. 1489. Kiel: Kiel Institute of the World Economy.
25. Durkin T., Elliehausen G. (2011). Truth in Lending: Theory, History, and a Way Forward. N. Y.: Oxford University Press.
26. Durkin T., Elliehausen G., Staten M., Zywicki T. (2014). Consumer credit and the American economy. N. Y.: Oxford University Press.
27. Fligstein N., Goldstein A. (2010). The anatomy of mortgage securitization crisis. In: M. Lounsbury, P. Hirsch (eds.). Bingley: Emerald Group, pp. 29-70.
28. Fox J., Bartholomae S., Lee J. (2005). Building the case for financial education. Journal of Consumer Affairs, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 195-214.
29. Friedman M. (1957). A theory of the consumption function. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
30. Giesler M., Veresiu E. (2014). Creating the responsible consumer: Moralistic governance regimes and consumer subjectivity. Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 840-857.
31. Godbout J. (2000). The world of the gift. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
32. Graeber D. (2011). Debt: The first 5000 years. N. Y.: Melville House.
33. Gregory C. (1982). Gifts and commodities. London: Academic Press.
34. Katona G. (1975). Psychological economics. N. Y.: Elsevier.
35. Lazzarato M. (2012). The making of the indebted man. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
36. Manning R.D. (2000). Credit card nation: The consequences of America’s addiction to credit. N. Y.: Basic Books.
37. Marron D. (2009). Consumer credit in the United States: A sociological perspective from the 19th century to the present. N. Y.: Palgrave Macmillan.
38. Medoff J.L., Harless A. (1996). The indented society: Anatomy of an ongoing disaster. N. Y.: Little, Brown and Co.
39. Modigliani F., Brumberg R. (2005 [1954]). Utility analysis and the consumption function: An interpretation of cross-section data. In: The collected papers of Franco Modigliani. Vol. 6. Cambridge, MA; London: MIT Press, pp. 3-46.
40. Peebles G. (2010). The anthropology of credit and debt. Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 225-240.
41. Polanyi K. (2001). The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time. Boston: Beacon Press.
42. Poovey M. (2013). Demonizing debt, naturalizing finance. In: P. Paik, M. Wiesner-Hanks (eds.). Debt: ethics, the environment, and the economy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 39-55.
43. Simmel G. (2011). The philosophy of money. N. Y.: Routledge.
44. Trumbull G. (2014). Consumer lending in France and America: Credit and welfare. N. Y.: Cambridge University Press.
45. Tversky A., Kahneman D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, Vol. 185, No. 4157, pp. 1124-1131.
46. Tversky A., Kahneman D. (1981). The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, Vol. 211, No. 4811, pp. 453-458.
47. Vandone D. (2009). Consumer credit in Europe: Risks and opportunities of a dynamic industry. Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer Verlag.
48. Warren E., Warren Tyagi A. (2003). The two-income trap: Why middle-class mothers & fathers are going broke. N. Y.: Basic Books.
49. Zavisca J. (2009). Housing the new Russia. N. Y.: Cornell University Press.
Review
For citations:
Yudin G. The Moral Nature of Debtand the Making of Responsible Debtor. Voprosy Ekonomiki. 2015;(3):28-45. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2015-3-28-45
Views:
1587
Email this article 
