Moral Limits to Global Markets?

Should there be 'moral limits' to global markets? It's a timely question, particularly after the economic turmoil of the last year, and Michael Sandel, professor of government at Harvard, is going to be exploring it in his series of Reith Lectures for the BBC. He wants to revive the idea of the common good. It's an attractive idea - that there are areas of our lives that should be 'off limits' to markets and governed by principles other than the economic bottom line. And it's one that wouldn't have been remotely controversial until the last 30 years or so. But - to these ears at least - it seems to beg some fundamental questions, and I'm not sure Sandel has an answer to them. Who gets to decide what's in the interest of society at large?

One thing that's very apparent in our regular global attitudes polling is that as societies we're less and less inclined to trust the judgment of those who we might have once looked to for a moral lead, including governments and religious leaders. So how do you avoid going from rule of the market to the rule of those who shout the loudest? Sandel was part of the panel last week on the BBC's fabulous weekly discussion programme, Start the Week. He's certainly worth a listen.