The Domestication of Competition
Social Evolution and Liberal Society

Show how the pervasive influence of competition reorganised military, economic, political, and cultural power, thereby forming modern liberal society.

Jonathan Hearn (Author)

9781009199155, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 February 2023

330 pages, 1 b/w illus. 1 table
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.63 kg

'Jonathan Hearn notes that 'competition' is often used as a boo-word – something always to regret or despise. Against this simplistic view, Hearn shows that competition, in both nature and society, has complex forms and functions. It can be damaging, but it is often a means to spur cooperation or mutual advantage. It is not confined to markets, as competitions in sport attest. This a fascinating, rich and timely book that will transform thinking on this topic.' Geoffrey Hodgson, Loughborough University

Competition is deeply built into the structures of modern life. It can improve policies, products and services, but is also seen as a divisive burden that pits people against one another. This book seeks to go beyond such caricatures by advancing a new thesis about how competition came to shape our society. Jonathan Hearn argues that competition was 'domesticated', harnessed and institutionalised across a range of institutional spheres in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Responding to crises in traditional forms of authority (hereditary, religious), the formalisation of competition in the economy, politics, and diverse new forms of knowledge creation provided a new mode for legitimating distributions of power in the emerging liberal societies. This insightful study aims to improve our ability to think critically about competition, by better understanding its integral role, for good and ill, in how liberal forms of society work.

Introduction
Part I. The Ideas: 1. The context of the question
2. The theoretical approach
Part II. The Analytic Narrative: 3. The decline of traditional authority, and the rise of corporate actors
4. Militias to militaries
5. From adventurers to companies
6. From factions to parties
7. From churches to universities
Part III. The Wider View: 8. The culture of competition
9. The critique of competition
Conclusion
References.

Subject Areas: Sociology [JHB]