Alfred Marshall on the Structural and Behavioural Properties of Social Institutions

Makes and attempts to substantiate, the following claims: It was Marshall′s objective to show how poverty could be ameliorated. He located the causes of poverty in the institutions of the state, education,monopoloid business enterprise, and the working‐class family. He viewed institutions as structures and as organized social behaviour. He explained that the latter is conditioned by customs. Some of these are rooted in the legend‐enshrouded past and hence change‐resisting. Other customs are change‐promoting by virtue of being engendered in scientific, technological, and educational processes. Marshall recommended that the state be reformed through a strengthening of democratic processes and that this be followed by state‐engineered reform of monopoloid institutions and of educational institutions. These reforms would result in increased institutionalization of dynamic behaviour and accelerated deinstitutionalization of static behaviour. The outcome would be an increase in welfare. Because of his recommendations. Marshall considered himself a socialist.