The Gratis Economy: Privately Provided Public Goods 9789633864982

Table of contents :
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Boxes
Preface
THESES TO INTRODUCE THE CONCEPT OF THE GRATIS ECONOMY
ESSAY I: THE TRADITIONAL GRATIS ECONOMY-UNCHARTED FACES OF PRO BONO WORK
1. The Social Basis Of Volunteering
ESSAY II: THE VIRTUAL FACES OF THE GRATIS ECONOMY-BUSINESS-OPERA TED SIZZLING GRATUITIES
2. Free of Charge-Except for Advertising
3. Free of Charge-Except for the Commodification of Privacy
4. Gratuities Embedded in Business Processes
ESSAY III: THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN THE GRATIS ECONOMY-GRATUITIES GENERATED BY THE POLITY
5. The State-Run Gratis Economy
6. The Informational Commons
7. Typology of Business Intrusions
8. Towards the Demise of Mass Culture in Cyberspace
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND BASIC READINGS
INDEX

Citation preview

THE GRATIS ECONOMY Privately Provided Publlc Goods

THE GRATIS ECONOMY

Privately Provided Public Goods

ANDRÁS KELEN

„ CEU PRESS 4 ' �

Central European University Press Budapest

© 2001 by András Kelen English edition published in 2001 by Central European University Press An imprint of the Central European University Share Company Nádor utca 11, H-1015 Budapest, Hungary Te/: +36-1-327-3138 or 327-3000 Fax: +36-1-327-3183 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.ceupress.com 400 West 59th Street, New York NY 10019, USA Te/: +1-212-547-6932 Fax: +1-212-548-4607 E-mail: [email protected] Distributed

in the United Kingdom and Western Europeby

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in the USA by

CEU Press c/o Books Jnternational P.O. Box 605, Hemdon, VA 20172, USA Te/: +1-703-661-1500 Fax: +1-703-661-1501 E-mail: [email protected]

in Canadaby

CEU Press c/o University of Toronto Press Inc. 5201 Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ontario M3H 5T8, Canada Tet+l-800-565-9523 Fax: +1-800-221-9985 E-mail: [email protected] Ali rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrleval system, or transmitted. in any form or by any means, without the permission of the Publisher. ISBN 963 9241 22 9 Cloth ISBN 963 9241 33 4 Paperback ISBN 978 963 386 498 2 ebook Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book is available upon request Printed in Hungary by Akadémiai Nyomda, Martonvásár

For Professor David Farber in acknowledgment of the insight enabled by his IP-an arch-genre of the maturing information society

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Boxes Preface THESES TO INTRODUCE THE CONCEPT OF THE GRATIS ECONOMY The Main Drivers ofthe Gratis Economy Description ofthe Following Chapters

xi xiii

1 2 4

ESSAY I: THE TRADITIONAL GRATIS ECONOMY­ UNCHARTED FACES OF PRO BONO WORK 1. The Social Basis OfVolunteering

Liturgies as the Generalization ofVolunteering The Heritage ofVolunteering in Antiquity Condescending Medieval Charity Enthusiastic Messianism: The East Central European Socialist Experience inVolunteering Modem Applications ofthe Generalized Notion ofVolunteering Loci Classici on Liturgical Associations Military Service as Liturgical Duty Involuntary Labor Service: Labor Battalions in the Second World War Warrior Ethnicities Voluntary Border Guards Foster Parenting Classical Fields ofVolunteering-The Receding Gratis Economy The Professionalization of Sports Laicism in Office-Holding The Provision ofCommercial Exposure for Sponsors by Non-Profit Organizations

7 7

11

13

18

27 28 31 34 35 37 38 41 41 53 58

viii ESSAY 11: THE VIRTUAL FACES OF THE GRATIS ECONOMY-BUSINESS-OPERA TED SIZZLING GRATUITIES 2. Free of Charge-Except for Advertising Technology Bringing Forth the Banner Model of Advertising Banners on Demand New Browser against Pop-Up Advertising Suppressors, Filters Bandwidth-Adaptive Advertising We-Pay-You Advertising Deep Linking Ad Savers Ad Serving Publishing Sites Using the Site Model Ad Serving Solution Third-Party Ad Server Using the Network Model Ad Serving Solution A Counting Methodology for Third-Party Ad Servers in a Proxy Server Setting Online Business's Comparative Advantage as to Timing Validation and Visibility of Business Communication in Cyberspace Conclusions

90 102

3. Frce of Charge-Except for thc Commodification of Privacy Between the Right to Traceability and Anonymity The Two Drivers Coinciding-Privacy Predicated Targeting Tools Policy Deliberations Predictive Profiling Tracking Online Targeting Customization

107 113 121 131 133 137 141 144

4. Gratuities Embedded in Business Processes Setting the Exposure Threshold Between Profitability and Breaking Even-Content Provision as a Non-Profit Endeavor Web Targeting at The New York Times Grant Economics, Gift Economics Gratis Models Conclusions

146 146

63 77 77 78 79 83 84 86 87 87 88 88 88 89

161 162 165 169 177

ix ESSAY 111: THE PUBLIC INTEREST IN THE GRATIS ECONOMY-GRATUITIES GENERATED BY THE POLITY

5. The State-Run Gratis Economy Collective Goods Full Public Subsidization ofPharmaceutical Prices Cutting Edge Research: The Human Genome Project Towards the Wireless Intemet-Universal Mobile Telecommunication Services (UMTS) in the European Union Patterns ofTime Release in the Economy

1 79 1 79 1 81 1 84 1 87 1 92

6. The Informational Commons The Intellectual Property/Wide Access Trade-Off Alternatives to Intellectual Property-Non-Proprietary Software Developers Bites out ofthe Gratis Economy

203 209

7. Typology of Business Intrusions Software Spying on Its Users The 'lflt's Legal, Someone Will Do It' Assault Threatening Free Speech The Intricacy ofData Commerce Possible Outcomes of Privacy Regulations Casuistry Grassroots lnfluencing Regulation

245 245 248 252 253 259 261 268

8. Towards the Demise of Mass Culture in Cyberspace One-to-One Targeting Space-Shifting Peer-to-Peer Sharing Peer-to Peer in Terms ofSociology 'Gentle Money': Community-Level Clearinghouses and Marketplaces The Design of 'Gentle Money' Scenario for 'Gentle Employment' Implications for Broad Public Policy

272 280 285 287 295

21 8 228

301 305 307 31 3

X

NOTES

319

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND BASIC READINGS Bibliography and Basic Readings Surveys and Reports References Advertising-Related Sites Privacy-Related Sites Targeting-Related Sites INDEX

359 359 359 359 360 360 367

LIST OF BOXES

Box 1. Underwriting as Opposed to Advertising Box 2. The Archetype of Distracting Advertisements: The

'Sponsored'Version of Eudora Mail

Box 3. The Internet as Source oflnformation Box 4. Belgian Attitude Survey on the Use of Suppressors and Other

Anti-Ad Software Box 5. Methods that Can Help a Business to Get to the Top of the Search Listings Box 6. The Way Marketing Specialists Think about Opt-In Box 7. NCR Study on European Popular Opinion on Privacy Box 8. Site Tracking Box 9. Profiling Techniques Box 10. DirectHit Box 11. Gallup Poll on the Extent of Privacy Fears Box 12. Human Resource Practices at Marks & Spencer Box 13. Exceptions to the US Model ofUnrestricted Access to Public Sector Information Box 14. The Hacking ofthe DigitalVideo Disk Encryption System Box 15. Licensing Regimes Box 16. Special Restrictions on Intellectual Property Box 17. Excerpt from Ortega y Gasset's 'The Revolt of the Masses' Box 18. The Link between Advertising and Privacy

60 64 66 82 92 105 113 129 133 134 135 201 205 222 225 233 275 283

PREFACE Association of a price with a value is often misleading (Collective wisdom) There is no such thing as a free shave (French saying) There is such a thing as a free lunch (Recent experience of cyber citizens)

The best things in life are said to be free. Public goods, however, are never awarded the coveted accolade of 'life' in this sense. Public goods are standard ingredients of economic lore. Economics, as we know, is the science of the rational allocation of scarce resources. To speak out­ right of a Gratis Economy-an allocation framework based on time alone rather than prices because volunteering and the digital world know no scarcity-beyond the scope of an elusive metaphor (rather than enu­ merating a few public goods such as air, advertisement-free radio, and impromptu musical performances in public places) would seem to be quite a challenge. Indeed, I have not set out to dispute this underlying tenet of economic science; I merely call attention to a considerable limitation. Digital files that can be replicated and sold in innumerable copies intrinsically undermine the fundamental role scarcity plays in economics: when technology brings abundance this threatens those 'incumbents' who deal in yesterday's scarcities. The companies con­ cemed-those profiting from scarcity---either resort to economic pro­ tectionism or find altemative ways of doing business, whether they be funded by advertising, patronage, membership, or whatever; they seek to adapt to the digital economy. This frictional adaptation process has begun and gratis models play an underlying role. My limited quest is to call attention to one of the striking features of the 'new economy' -the phenomenon of offering a lot virtually free of charge. It is also my aim to show that, even if we occasionally do not pay for something, the derived utility can often be of a transactional or mutual-exchange character. We must try to understand or reconstruct this context of reciprocity in order to explain how simple 'giveaways' can still work towards business ends. The three studies in this volume­ delineating three overarching generic domains of society: the voluntary

xiv sector, business, and politics-address the classical body of knowledge known as the 'Social Economy', investigation of which, commencing perhaps as early as Aristotle, but certainly from Karl Polanyi to Kenneth Boulding, reveals the manifold ways in which economic transactions embed and submerge in various societal frameworks. The other academic objective of this book is to contribute to the broadening general understanding of what the established term 'non­ profit' can convey. ln my view, this category is in flux, just as the le­ gally-constituted third sector has everchanging boundaries in every country. ln 1987, with the publication ofthe first research handbook and state-of-the-art survey on non-profit organizations in the USA, in the first section of the keynote essay the author stated: "Historians have tended to ignore the non-profit sector. Existing scholarship examines only particular fields ..." More than thirteen years are quite a span in the fast-paced environment of present-day scholarship and the non-profit world has already received due attention. This is less so, however, in respect ofan appropriately thorough interpretation ofvoluntary work (as complemented by amateurism and laymanship) and the emerging pleth­ ora ofgratis services embedded in a hidden marketing context. The 1990s were a decade ofongoing and deep-cutting privatiz.ation all over the world. This prompted me to rethink the sources ofcommodifica­ tion and I found that selling a state property in Europe or outsourcing a government-run program in America are only two possible forms ofseiz­ ing public property. Besides the privatiz.ation of state property, another fundamental source of commodification, the so-called 'informational commons', shall be part of the focus of interest as an imperative further tap and valve of the Gratis Economy-it is a world-wide marvel because of its open environment with minimal regulation. This vast 'electronic prairie' has been created in tandem with cyberland itself. Netizens, com­ panies, and regulators are now in the pioneering process of discovering and inhabiting this virtual territory, still largely a no-man's-land. Discoveries necessarily engender enclosure.1 ln my account, l shall make special mention of current efforts in respect of which when the results of cutting-edge research are retained as a 'common heritage' (open-access) rather than fenced off as 'intellectual property'. Besides privatiz.ation and the direct occupation of a 'no-man's land', there are further conventional methods of creating private property when the pri­ mordial owner--or rather, the first occupant-is the state. For instance, the British National Lottery, the richest in the world, is subject to a so­ called 'beauty contest' (public tender) for would-be operators every

XV

seven years. The Universal Mobile Telephone System (UMTS) auc­ tions, awarding licenses for 30 wireless Internet services, have been initiated by the very visible hand of govemments all over Europe. Sup­ plementary to concessions, tenders, and auctions, mention must also be made of a unique type of 'land run', similar to the method of commodi­ fying and distributing public property implemented in Oklahoma in 1889. The contemporary equivalent of the 'land run' is the Czech method ofvoucher privatization, in which state property was valued and distributed among the citizens, who, if they wished, could promptly resell their shares for the cash offered by several property management funds. Finally, I should mention the coveted domain of Public Sector Information (information belonging to the public sector or gathered through the efforts ofthe public sector) such as archives or geographical information utilized in partnership with the private sector. The public sector collects and produces vast amounts of information, mostly for free, much ofwhich is ofgreat interest to individuals and businesses and can be the raw material for value-added information services produced by the 'content industries', which transform this enormous potential into saleable products and services. A theory should be as simple as possible but no simpler. I cannot con­ struct the full typology of primal acquisitions here, but I must set out to describe, weigh, and comment on how the domains of the Gratis Econ­ omy-whose boundaries are in flux because of ongoing re-creation through inventions and discoveries-are being grabbed by business inter­ ests. As to the ongoing case of cyberspace,2 I am convinced that care must be taken in respect of the extent to which it should be privatized: the ex­ haustive sharing out of cybertraffic among business interests would fore­ shadow the demise ofthe independent non-profit character ofthe Internet. ln order to put this process into perspective, I set out to track down the origins ofhow something remains a public good in two further underlying and independent respects: the historical origin of voluntary work; and the origin and pragmatic management ofintellectual property. My conclusion is twofold, and this may substantiate the juxtaposition of three studies so different in their methodological foundations. The first study, aimed at the hermeneutic reassembling of an almost forgotten but rich tradition in social science,3 introduces liturgical forms as examples of voluntary individual contributions to a community based on the motives ofsocial rather than functional integration, in contrast to taxation. Besides fulfilling a definite economic function they also helped keep alive com­ munity bonds and gave rise to benign collective sentiments.

xvi

Although I shall introduce many historical forms of 'working for free', I cannot provide an analysis of the social conditions and exigen­ cies that caused them to thrive or wither: my purpose is to reconstruct the rich notion of gratuity in general and voluntary work in particular. Although a volunteer is a one-man non-profit organization in himself, a pocket edition of the great foundations, little scholarly attention has so far been paid to the phenomenon. The sociological treasury and cate­ gorical abundance ofpro bono work, from coerced to voluntary labor, is as untapped as the manifold business models that inundate us with valu­ able intellectual property free of charge. This is particularly the case with the less pragmatic, less managerial, but rather cultural context of voluntarism as an intrinsic part of the overall Gratis Economy-that is, models of how to render a service for free. The second thrust of my investigation is towards an understanding of the public-domain component of intellectual property protection. This is no terra firma either. My findings lead to critical considerations based on case studies-full of forebodings as regards the preservation of all that is still freely available-of the current balance established by copy­ right legislation between what is openly and freely accessible and what is protected as private property. As a spin-off of this mapping of the changing borders of the public domain, I explore two other hot practical sources of gratis services: the often-dubious transactions with digital privacy,4 and the intriguing world of online advertising. The protection of privacy-that is, capturing public attention as netizens moving their lives online grapple with the shortcomings of the emerging lnformation Society-is an elementary human right, such as the presumption of in­ nocence, the right to a fair trial, and freedom from random surveillance. I also attempt to discover the capacities and limits of advertising­ supported communications. Applying these results to cause-related marketing can uncover new frontiers for the media of electronic professional communications and expand the options to support non-profit organizations' 'extracurricular income'. This is tantamount to the option of carrying pertinent adver­ tisements without degrading professional dealings to the level of a 'billboard community'. This opportunity is opening up for the non­ profit sector because there is a fledgling tendency that may tone down the purely business mindset of rampant advertising and 'domesticate' it to some sort of individually tailored knowledge management that could fit comfortably and without forcing into online professional communi­ cations. This domestication of often obtrusive advertising is predicated

xvii on the endearing grand covenant of the net: measurability, in the sense of the traceability of online navigations. One offshoot of this online measurability is precision targeting. This levei of information targeting and selective advertising portends the demise of mass culture. Focusing business communications and taking the educational levei of the target customer into account-so far unheard of in advertising-is tantamount to niche marketing: advertisements are not disseminated in the air or on the street but rather aimed at a single person whose marketing character­ istics can be established. Prospectively, this will lead to converting commercials into tailored 'infomercials' and domesticating pushed ad­ vertising into the permission-based agent of personal information man­ agement. This book also has a practical intent: to show that the current limits of the non-profit mode of operation are in an expansive flux due to the manifold new exemplars ofthe Gratis Economy, an economy that makes so many new endeavors tick. To broaden our often too simplistic con­ ceptual framework of the non-profit mode of economic activity, I have tried to contribute i. by exploring the uncharted heritage ofphilanthropy in order to ar­ rive at a sophisticated typology of 'voluntary' giving and local co­ operation as historical sources ofthe Gratis Economy; ii. by shedding light on emerging contemporary modes and models of gratuities. I identify two underlying sources of something's being toll-free. Unrestricted free access to information, free content provision, 5 and intellectual property in general originate either in the sophisticated business propositions of e-commerce or in the unencircled 'prairie' portion ofcyberspace. I describe this intrigu­ ing dynamic as the result ofsocial forces in the making. As to its empirical base, this book emerged from the 'source mining' of a Hungarian scholar while on a Fulbright research scholarship over­ seas. The superpower of voluntary work has traditionally been the USA.6 Altruistic volunteering is said to be the secret genius and strength ofthis great country. The idea and practice ofneighbor helping neighbor is said to be a fundamental value in American life. I will not contest these claims in this book and many of my examples of sophisticated typologies come from the erstwhile 'Points of Lights' program.7 The necessity of beginning a new life in the New World, as the primordial experience and archetype of the American people, still makes itself felt

xviii

in a strong social conscience and religious conviction. It is also widely believed, however, that Americans are almost alone among the world's peoples in pledging their time and money voluntarily to such an extent in the wider public interest. I shall try my best, however, to throw some doubt on this latter contention, not only by citing comparative time­ budget surveys from distinctive periods of Hungarian history, but also by reconstructing aspects ofvoluntary work in different cultures. I have tried to preserve this exceptional bi-cultural angle-with some startling elective affinities8-by upholding a contrastive mix of exam­ ples drawing evidence from American and East Central European em­ pirics. Since the USA is a superpower in respect of both volunteering and the digital economy, 9 it is plainly difficult to avoid writing a star­ spangled all-American book on the Gratis Economy. I have tried my best to maintain an intemational angle and to bring as many cases from Europe as my data permitted. Besides exploring libraries I resorted, as the only method of deriving clues conceming well-sheltered, often copyrighted or patent-pending business practices, to lurking-listening, leaming, but not necessarily contributing-and (as a conscientious stu­ dent of ethnomethodology in the sociology of the late 1960s) also ac­ tively participating in numerous professional discussion groups on both continents. At the same time, the theoretical paradigm is unambiguously ofEast Central European inception; this is due to the author's education and formative years in social science, part of the last generation of the Budapest school of independent sociologists in the 1970s and 1980s, as Central Europe slowly prepared for transition. Central Europe represents a recurring object of thought in the book. One chapter ('Enthusiastic Messianism') is devoted exclusively to is­ sues of local East Central European relevance. Another chapter, recon­ structing the notion of free or liturgical labor, concems those neglected elements ofWeberian sociology that gave rise to considerations, ranging from philosophy to Sinology, on the existence of an 'Asiatic mode of production'. ln these hermeneutical chapters, aiming at the special fea­ tures of the non-profit world, the reader is ushered into a scholarly frame of reference that is difficult only because of Weber's complex interweaving of power structures, group struggles, and institutionaliza­ tion-and certainly also because of its distance from life as we know it in our hemisphere today. The US 'third sector' was founded by people who had fled from all­ encompassing institutions, whether they were of a govemmental or a religious character. American grant donors often behave as 'intellectual

xix

investrnent bankers', supporting a competitive selection of innovative ideas and people. ln contrast, the development of the East Central Euro­ pean non-profit sector can be traced back unambiguously to retrench­ ments ofthe state budget in the transition towards a market economy. ln Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic, exceptionally, we have a handful of NGOs that take pride in tracing their origins to the glorious time of struggle for institutional independence from the Communist state bureaucracy. Ever since, independence has been a qualified notion when it comes to financial matters. What is more, as the predominant statism commands that new ideas should füst take the shape of a state­ funded statutory institution, East Central European grant makers often only operate as a Doppelgiinger; that is, they reiterate on a more modest scale the funding logic of the state administration, thereby confirming many social-service groups in their status as merely state appendages. 1 0 Gratuitousness is universal (perhaps no less than an anthropological constant), but the cases I have chosen to deal with, the experience in its inception, and the entire paradigm as presented in this book is certainly rooted in Mitteleuropa. The motto of Freudian dream theory is also seamlessly applicable here: Flectere si nequeo superos, acheronta movebo ("If I cannot bend the heavenly powers, 1 will move the infemal regions"). 'Beneath' is a reference to his exploration of the subcon­ scious. There is, then, a possible and remarkable interpretation of junk and the unvalued as a parallel to those events of little consequence or rather ofambivalent relevance that we forget, misspell, or refer to in our dreams. There are forerunners in the tradition of researching the 'irrelevant' in society carried to a grandiose climax by the innovation of bringing jokes, dreams, and errors into focus. Furthermore, a good twenty years ago E. F. Schumacher introduced the proper appreciation of "smallness", in the sense of neatness, into economic thinking. There has always been a train of social thought addressing the 'uninteresting', such as the Austro-Hungarian author and philanthropist L. von Hat­ vany's Wissenschaft der Unwissenswerten [Science of the 'not worth knowing']; 1 might also mention other initiatives, . such as M. Thomp­ son's ' Rubbish Theory', addressing the phenomenologically necessary blindspots ofsociological perception. There was a seminal thrust in the 1980s when the social sciences in­ creasingly took notice of the role of the informal spheres, that is, local spheres of working and producing beyond the boundaries of the global economic system. There is even a portmanteau word for this productive but informal work: 'prosumption' . 1 1

THE SE S TO INTRODUCE THE C ON C E PT OF THE GRATI S E C ONOMY

I intend my theses as an introduction to the concept of virtual gratuities. With this term I attempt to put a unified frame over diverse domains and ambits in society. First, I identify the main driving forces that render valu­ able products and services free ofcharge. I also furnish evidence concern­ ing the material bases of the work. Then I present theses epitomizing the major findings of the three essays which make up this volume. 1 2 Finally, having made my point that the Gratis Economy and netizenship are pair­ concepts, I develop policymaking guidelines concerning this sector of the economy, which is eternal, but ever-changing. I identify three, top-levei domains of the Gratis Economy. These domains are dealt with in three essays, dealing with (i) private systems of social obligation, (ii) privately provided public goods, and (iii) the uncharted face ofthe Commons. The first essay depicts unique features of philanthropy with a strong presence in contemporary economies. Reconstructing the important notion of the liturgy, I generalize voluntary work as one form among others ofprivate systems ofsocial obligation. The second essay looks at marketing methods; freeware is treated as part of a wider revenue model or product-selling strategy mix. Grant or gift economics-buzzwords ofthe 1980s and 1990s-do not fully apply here. This domain of quid pro quo is a ' sizzling' sector worldwide. I retum to the non-profit sector to the extent of weighing arguments con­ ceming whether pockets of the Internet are tuming into a very impor­ tant, special new cdition of the non-profit world, in which independent resourcing and local co-opcration are upheld and enabled against all the challenges and attractions of for-profit misrepresentation. This intrigu­ ing outcome is predicated on issues of Internet governance: it is an on­ going conflict but a favorable outcome for the Internet's 'privatization'

2

The Gratis Economy

from being a US government-run entity towards acquiring independence cannot yet be excluded. Independence from government is somewhat beyond the scope of this volume-given its transnational character cy­ berspace is not easily regulated-and I shall concentrate on how the attained levei of independence from business can be preserved. The last essay concems politically constituted collective goods. This segment of mostly tax-supported items has a substantial history: the chiliasm or unconditional hope of the imminent termination of the evils of capitalism in early East Central European Socialism was the culmi­ nation of gratis solutions based on one-way income transfer and social­ policy-induced redistribution. Although this zenith has long been left behind, predicated on political will or a benign budget surplus, politi­ cians still occasionally try to make political capital by making some­ thing free by fiat. No reform movement other than abolitionism has absorbed the energies of so many Americans as the drive for public education, or has created such widespread and bitter opposition. The perhaps somewhat pale (but certainly not haggard!) current equivalent of this grand old example is the emerging issue of public assistance to­ wards the cost of medicines. lt is often easier to declare something free than to revoke it as budgetary preconditions wane. Many stick-in-the­ mud, non-discretionary items of state budgets---called the implicit (unaccounted) debt-were once declared political gifts. Beyond elabo­ rating this and a few other examples of gratuity delivered by politicians, I have come up with an original contribution of my own as a further type (time allowances).

THE MAIN D RIVERS OF THE G RATIS ECONOMY The free nature of the Internet is said to have been lost to business inter­ ests; it is often claimed that this erstwhile 'public utility' is now run mainly by private companies. I contest this claim by showing that the general non-profit character of the Net has only been limited or con­ tained. As the best stuff on the Web is hidden behind error messages, unlisted databases, and little-known links, most of cyberspace is still open for serendipity and will remain free as long as the emerging but by no means all-encompassing business communications offer compro­ mises in matters of time-use and privacy. I claim that time-use and pri­ vacy-compromises related to our attention focus and info assurance- · are the most important drivers that foster non-charging business solu-

Theses to Introduce the Concept of the Gratis Economy

3

tions and render more and more products and services free. This is a tacit give-and-tak.e, but the outcome belongs among the core drivers of the new economy. Online marketing and commerce proceed on the basis of a market of clicks-not just users' mouse clicks but also the clicks of third-party meters counting time, compiling statistical profiles and measuring user behavior. Advertising can help cyberspace remain toll free by compromising netizens' time but offering something in return for using their (personally identifiable) data in business. 1 will trace these innovations to the extent necessary to understand them and evalu­ ate them in terms of how force-fed or interruptive they are. There are intriguing new initiatives to render commercials less aggressive and more relevant, more permission-based and even more dependent on bandwidth. 13 These targeting initiatives promise the demise of the mass culture of advertising as we know it, helping commercial messages to evolve into personalized individual knowledge management for opting­ in netizens. This endeavor is part of a wider project to understand fur­ ther the phenomena of the emerging 'Gratis Economy'. Besides the demands on our time described above, there is another underlying driver of this fledgling online Gratis Economy: we are being offered compromises on our privacy. ln my approach, privacy ceases to be an issue between the state and citizens. Big Brother may be alive and well, but the crucial issue is to be found rather in the corporate world. Businesses avidly search for consumers' personal data. ln my critical evaluation of privacy policies I delineate a-still hypothetical-trade­ off that does not preclude the data flow of personally identifying infor­ mation in exchange for the evidence-based, enhanced targeting of online ads. This individual targeting (selective serving) of advertisements is a great promise of the Internet By delivering on this promise, an interac­ tive medium is in the making where publishers can weigh up, advertise, and serve one person at a time. They can get direct and immediate feed­ back. They can push manifold as yet unheard-of services which effec­ tively reach one person at a time. Over time, these emerging new per­ sonally tailored services can operate only if users 'surrender themselves to browsing', that is, hand over personally identifying information for commercial purposes. 1 4 The commercial development of the Web is predicated on giving consumers the opportunity to be authentic and anonymous when engaging in information exchanges and online trans­ actions. Non-profit development, at the same time, presupposes, trading personally identifying information in exchange for being given person­ ally tailored services and more relevant advertising. This means no less

4

The Gratis Economy

than: 'give your name to your browsing' [lit. 'give your name to your work' in the sense of taking responsibility for it]. By giving our name-tag to our browsing we renounce anonymity while online, but in retum we are offered better, relevant advertisements. Besides compromises on our innate digital privacy, there are other drivers that I call in sum system/lifeworld partnerships. This term, paral­ lel to well-known public/private partnerships depicts models how the economic and administrative system can support gratis services and philanthropic endeavor in general. DES CRIPTION OF THE FOLLOWING CHAPTERS Chapter One: This is a reconstruction of the social context of historical

volunteering with modem applications. With reference to the Weberian theory of liturgies I attempt to subject the original concept of charity to economic analysis. Throughout these expositions, I discuss the tradi­ tional form of giving something for free: voluntary work. It is extremely difficult to say something new on this, but I have set out to present only the uncharted aspects of voluntary work. Ancient and medieval forms are contrasted with more recent historical types and variants. The open­ ing up of new or rather reconstructed territory for scientific investigation is made possible by a new paradigm of pro bono work: voluntary work is portrayed as running the gamut between choice and compulsion; as an assumed obligation, whether pleasant or coerced. This obligation is predicated on the perception of a community, whether 'gentle' or coer­ cive. ln order to arrive at a multifaceted approach that makes possible a generalized notion of 'free' (both voluntary and gratis), I painstakingly restore the enabling sociological framework of social integration, com­ munities where voluntarism can emerge. Ultimately, I claim that cases of volunteering or giving away or receiving something for free must be understood within either a social context or a business model. Formulat­ ing it as a thesis, I construe the concept of gratuity (in contrast to grants, gifts, or any other sort of unrequited giving) as emerging within either a community or a business model. The social context usually already ex­ ists in our community heritage; the creative talents of marketing estab­ lish it within the framework of a business proposition. Very recently, the two branches have begun to intertwine. Chapter Two: This is an explanation of how the New Economy in general, 15 and dot-coms in particular, operates by taking up the user's

Theses to lntroduce the Concept of the Gratis Economy

5

time. Although this volume is not about the Internet Economy proper, and I am interested in e-commerce and the business of dot-coms only to the extent of presenting my theory on how something toll-free is cre­ ated, 1 give a detailed analysis of unfolding methods and an evaluation of the adopted technologies of online advertising. ln the previous chapter the notion of 'non-profit' is construed in broader terms than economics or taxation; Chapter Two continues this embedded, interdisciplinary approach with an attempt to integrate the concept of public goods with the emerging phenomenon of the New Economy. The concept of virtual public goods emerges here in a context that leads me-following a rich tradition of economic sociology-to apply the notion of a Gratis Economy. The digital world offers a wide range of services for free-a phenomenon that is structurally new com­ pared to both volunteering and traditional public goods. The costs are hidden here behind a marketing fai;:ade-and thus are by no means 'sunk costs '-and are calculated and shifted along to be bome by other actors in the economy in a quite sophisticated manner. Chapter Three: The practice of commodifying digital privacy has been brought to public awareness. This issue will soon be higher on political agendas, too. Throughout my expositions I maintain a stance responsive to business interests because I am aware of the intriguing innovations that cannot unfold without the use of persona! data. From the perspective of a possible net gain for netizens, 1 try to develop a position that strikes a balance between the ambitious demands of online business and the observation of clear-cut and well-sanctioned minimal regulatory requirements. Chapter Four: This concems the structure of gratuities embedded in business models that provides the theory of the business operated part of the Gratis Economy with its clearest statement. Chapter Five: This considers the role of govemment in setting policy and otherwise regulating the Gratis Economy-regulating that domain of the overall economy that was user-driven well before the creation of cyberspace. 1 sketch the scope of gratuities generated, constituted, and maintained by political will. ln addition, 1 discuss here policy-related matters including the description of an underlying struggle for compe­ tence over the as yet non-privatized domains of the Gratis Economy. ln a series of case studies I recapitulate how the free distribution of goods occurs at the prompting of political interests. This chapter invokes, among other things, the story of the quest for the sequencing of human genes, in which a private company and a public research consortium are

6

The Gratis Economy

competing, with the latter putting all of its findings into the public do­ main. Chapter Six: Politics is more than state administration; public goods and gratuities that affect the public interest-such as newbom babies, to take an unusual example-are also dynamically articulated outside the legislature. New claims and solutions emerge, while existing ones with­ draw. The expositions on the 'informational commons' provide a state­ ment of the analytic contribution of this book: the informational com­ mons is under direct threat. A discussion of issues of intellectual prop­ erty protection is connected to the issues of the endangered public do­ main. Chapter Seven: Besides the role to be adopted by governments and intemational covenants, I draw into focus the activity of civic initiatives which are endeavoring to settle the controversies over 'knowledge grabs'. Chapter Eight: Technological developments bring about a situation where mass culture yields first mass customization then, perspectively, one-to-one and peer-to-peer mechanisms of communication. Comple­ mented with improvement in non-global economic communication­ money-, this may further empower forces of locality. Finally, a brief policy discussion brings the theory of the polity-generated part of the anthropologically construed Gratis Economy to its conclusion.

E S S AY I

THE TRADITI ONAL GRATI S E C ONOMY-UNCHARTED FACE S OF PRO BONO WORK 1 . THE SOCIAL BASIS OF VOLUNTEERING L I T U RG I E S A S THE G E N E RA L I ZATI O N O F V O L U N T E E R I N G

I shall undertak.e the hermeneutic reconstruction of the rich treatment of voluntary work in ancient philology as an essential anchorage for socio­ logical thinking on the Gratis Economy, the aggregation of zero-revenue services. This reconstruction will lead to the introduction of such his­ torical social institutions as: voluntarism in its primordial form; the vol­ untarist origins of obligatory duties; and liturgical altematives to mone­ tary contributions. Later on, I trace liturgical status-motivated volunteer­ ing from Antiquity through medieval Christian practice and European aristocracies to modem transformations ofpre-modem philanthropy. All the reconstructed pattems of how people performed their volunteering are shown meticulously within their original context. This is important because, beyond the actual toil, service, or performance, the intended meaning is always an indisputable part of the voluntary structure. When the perceived meaning is absent and forgotten, volunteering yields to various forms of withdrawing the surplus product in society (that is, taxation). To arrive at these three components of the rich, full notion of working gratis and reconstruct them conceptually I have had recourse to the Weberian concept of liturgy. Liturgies are a historically surprisingly persistent, alternative struc­ ture for the redistribution of surplus product in the polity (inclusive of civil society and public administration). The theoretical tradition in eco­ nomic sociology has used the concept of liturgy too narrowly, in relation to understanding the social forces that contributed to the throttling of the

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The Gratis Economy

genns of early capitalism in Antiquity. Even after the decline and fall of status-based political orders, status-enhancing public service has stayed with us. An abiding concern with status-honor has certainly survived into modernity. As managerial practices and commercialization in phi­ lanthropy are nowadays pushing the third sector towards an antipodal path of development, liturgies can have modern relevance only if their entire rich and contrastive meaning can be unfolded. I shall therefore attempt an etymological and cultural reconstruction of the original meaning. This meaning seems to have remained invariable throughout the colorful history of voluntary work. ln the city-states of Antiquity which, at least in their heyday, were thriving communities, deeds perfonned for the public played an i111portant role. They were called 'liturgies', a compound of two Greek words: 'laos ' (=people, cf. laity) and 'ergon ' (=work). Thus, we have: "duty perfonned for the people", 1 6 or "a public office which the richer citizens discharged at their own expense". 1 7 The theologian Karl Rahner, observing that Christian usage gradually narrowed its meaning to designate public wor­ ship, also notes in connection with Christian liturgy that "liturgy should transmit the eschatological contents of the Christian message not only in a symbolic-damped fönn, but should also be the scene of the people 's own practice [my italics] and genuine manifestation". This reference also alludes to the early Christian communities where the observer and reader of the mass were not so discernible. Later on, preaching became clericalized as the prerogative of holders of a particu­ lar office. With the ban on lay preaching and lay sennons in the ninth century the originally rich idea of the 'priesthood of all believers' be­ came lost. There emerged a constricted medieval tradition identifying priesthood with the administration of the sacraments. Thus, this profes­ sion became a special class (in the eyes of God) with special powers and a higher morality. As early as the third century AD the distinction in the ecclesiastical vocabulary between laicism and clericalism led to a heresy called Montanism, which accorded more authority to prophets than to priests and bishops, leading to a hierarchy of an unusual kind, probably including women. Later on, the persecuted Anabaptists took this phrase to mean the thoroughgoing abolition of any functional distinction be­ tween clergy and laity. Only very recently did Vatican II revive for Catholics the idea of sennons given by lay people without specific ec­ clesiastical permission or training. The Septuagint 1 8 translators of the Old Testament also used this Greek tenn to denote the service of God in sanctuary. ln the Hebrew

The Traditional Gratis Economy-Uncharted Faces of Pro Bono Work

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original it has various kindred meanings; in the Old Testament it usually denotes the service ofa Jewish priest. ln the New Testament it is used of any service rendered to God. ln the fourth century, the word as applied to priestly ministrations was already generally recognized. Athenian liturgies amounted to citizen participation in public affairs. As a result of habit and tradition, several types of liturgical commitment developed in which, in a way approved by the community and in a sense clear to everybody within the tradition, 1 9 pledges could be accomplished and sacrifices rendered for the wider public. More exactly, liturgies in Antiquity were services aimed at lightening the public burdens of the polis and satisfying local public needs. The citizenry performed these services voluntarily, that is, from their own resources, in a planned and determined sequence. Everybody with wealth amounting to two talents could be required to undertake a lit­ urgy, but only after the lapse of one year and for one purpose at a time. ln difficult economic circumstances liturgies may have imposed serious burdens upon well-to-do citizens, and especially upon important fami­ lies. Occasionally, through the almost unrestricted demand for liturgies, the city-state was able to exercise far-reaching control over private wealth. 20 lmmunity was usually granted to the archons (holders of public of­ fices), to orphans before reaching majority, to heiresses, and to corpo­ rate wealth. Colonists were also excused liturgical service at home, as of right. Demosthenes, for instance, once makes explicit mention of three gentlemen ofparticular merít who were granted immunity. From the fact that the sources reporting the life and history of the city-states, at least until their decline set in, never record a case when anybody refused to shoulder communal work, the conclusion may be drawn that the Greeks regarded it as a status-enhancing duty rather than as burdensome 'forced labor' . Self-esteem, pride, and ambition are thought to be the main driving force behind liturgies. True, Theophrastos in his Charakteres devotes a section to the Niggard, who in order to promote the victory of his tragic choir, renders his duty with a wooden tripod; . . . or in the case of spontaneous public pledges he also makes a proposal, yet either he keeps silent as far as the sum is concemed, or escapes unobserved in the mi ddl e of the meeting; . . . as a trierarchos he spreads the steersman's blanket on the deck and puts aside his own.

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The Gratis Economy

It is surprising, furthermore, that the holding of public offices-arché in Greek, 2 1 nobile officium in Latin-was presumably ofthe same origin as the rendering of liturgies. The rendering of public offices and thereby the giving of one's resources is not only a reminder of the liturgies, but is often referred to as synonymous (Jones, 1979). This is such an impor­ tant issue that I shall investigate it at the levei of the primary sources in some detail. Shedding some light on the voluntary spirit of the Athenians, Isokr. 12 (Panathenaikos) 145 writes: the morally excellent people are recruited as archai. People rendered this service in the same way as the liturgies that are burdensome, but at the same time those recruited acquire a definite distinction. Those who were appointed arché were compelled to neglect their own estates.

Pauly-Wissowa concludes that archai and liturgies were never identical in significance. ln Lysias XIX. 52 we read: "My father never aspired to be an arché, but duly performed his liturgies." However, Philostrat. Life of the Soph. II. 10. 20. 1. shows them as synonyms: "He was entrusted with the honor of eponymos [one of the Athenian administrative leaders known as archons] and epiton hoplon [one of the Athenian military leaders known as strategos]." This topos, however, is not decisive be­ cause Philostratos lived much later than the classical epoch. A difference may exist in the fact that office-holders were usually elected to the councils while voluntary work alone did not carry this distinction. ln fact, freedom from performing liturgies was regarded as a genuine privilege, 22 while the exemption from holding the office of magistrate was rather seen as a penalty. This pair of concepts ar­ ché/liturgy seems much more suitable to reflect the whole range of po­ tential shades of meaning which the phenomenon of modem voluntary working may convey. Local communities made suggestions conceming what liturgies should be performed, and these were considered and approved by high­ ranking officials. From this it does not follow that the sequence could not be changed or reversed. ln any case, if a citizen found his assign­ ment to be too onerous, he could voice his opinion, although this in­ volved the risk of having to accept what was called antidosis, a forced exchange of estates. Attempts to evade the more onerous liturgies were usually made with reference to some other eligible person, who was perhaps wealthier and therefore better able to shoulder the burdensome liturgy in question. ln this way, the head of a family trying to evade the

The Traditional Gratis Economy-Uncharted Faces of Pro Bono Work

11

burden assigned to him could easily be compelled to take over an estate which in his own estimate was larger than his own and to give up his own wealth (considered in the community's judgment to be more valu­ able). At this odd price one could be relieved of his liturgy. 23 Antidosis is my main proof of how a living tradition of genuine volunteering functions in a living community. It is natural that a contributor­ whatever warm sentiments he may foster towards his polis-will try to select among the available options. This person will also compare other people's contributions. Antidosis is a form of very human (perhaps even very Greek) bargaining within the framework of a community requiring and a household accepting a task to perform. What I am describing is the ultimate sanction, lurking in the background. Certainly, this solution may nowadays seem somewhat romantic, nevertheless it exemplifies a balanced, well-legitimized, and-as far as reconstructed power relations are concemed-undistorted social relationship at the glorious height of Greek history. T H E H E R I T A G E O F V O L U N T E E R I N G I N ANTI Q U ITY

The extraordinary liturgies reserved for the richest in the community were as follows: (i) trierarchia, that is, a ship built in its frame and structure by the state had to be finished, supplied with a crew and ar­ maments, and maintained; occasionally the command of the vessel had to be taken care of, too. ln the context of this type of liturgy Demosthenes XXI. 1 67 mentions that this seems to be almost an in­ come-generating form of activity. (ii) The so-called architheoria, that is, the sending of a large-size and highly respectful delegation to regular festive celebrations. Such extraordinary burden-bearing, often of the order of an enterprise, approximated what we might call the 'conspi­ cuous prestige conversion'-that is, the new rich laundering and con­ solidating their wealth with social influence-of mighty fortunes. ln his Kimon, Plutarch gives an account of the conflicts arising from the social perception of such ostentatiously performed liturgies. The usual forms of liturgy, available for and extracted from most heads of families, were as follows: gymnasiarchia, that is, the mainte­ nance, for a period, of one of the principal elements of the city's com­ munal facilities, the gymnasium, taking care of the pedagogues there, the acquisition of possibly rare sorts of oil needed to rub the body with, and so on. Obviously, one could make more or less effort while per­ forming one's liturgy in sponsorship of a gymnasium. The city officials

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The Gratis Economy

in charge of games and festivals ranked among the most highly honored citizens. There was one category of competition, a team event called the /am­ padarchia or torch-race, which was particularly widespread all over Hellas. Throughout its history, it remained above all a religious cere­ mony: its ritual aspects took precedence over its competitive and liturgi­ cal character. The event served a practical purpose: the carrying of the sacred fire from one point to another without extinguishing it. The fact that it had to be transported apace to preserve its purity and power re­ sulted in the bearers' vying for swiftness and the evolution of the tech­ niques of relay running. The 'finish-line' of the torch-race was an altar on which the winner had to light the fire with his torch. The costs of equipping and training the runners were met by a special levy which the state demanded from the appointed volunteers who superintended the recreation center. 24 An important variation on this event was the noctur­ nal torch-race on horseback. We know from Plato's Republic that this mounted version held a special fascination for the Athenians. Hestiasis referred to the (generous) entertainment of a clan on certain special occasions. Choregia was the acquisition and training of tragic and comic choruses performing at lyric contests. It is known from Lysias that, for example, the efforts made to present a dithyrambic chorus had to re­ flect the splendor of the ceremony in question. 2 5 A male chorus may have cost a (considerable) sum of around 2,000 drachmas in around 4 1 1-4 1 0 BC. According to a passage in Demosthenes, the performance of a men's chorus was a much more demanding enterprise than that of a tragic cho­ rus, primarily because ofthe larger number ofparticipants.26 Even the forms presented above reveal that liturgical structures bore definite meanings which were constantly being reinterpreted and recon­ strued by the participants while carrying out the traditionally prescribed activity. Thus, it may also have occurred that while some oblique forms lost their meaning and thereby their hermeneutic validity, others may have had their socially constructed and communally established mean­ ing transformed. The latter was the case when gymnasiarchia gave place to the torch races (lampadarchia), and choregia was embraced in the more general agonotheta which comprised all sorts of competitive or­ ganizations. For instance, in charge of the ancient Olympic games an agonthets was always appointed, a sort of referee-general (Sawhill, 1 928, 1 1 3-1 1 6). Choregia flourished again under Roman rule. Arrephoria had become an empty routine alienated from its tradi­ tional meaning. Lysias, XXI. 5, makes mention of it as a liturgical type,

The Traditional Gratis Econom�Uncharted Faces of Pro Bono Work

13

and, as Pauly-Wissowa's Realenzyclopaedie contends, this ceremonial procession was barely comprehensible as early as Alexander's time. Philological research has also scarcely been able to clarify the cultural intricacies ofa kind ofceremonial procession ofAttican girls devoted to Athene. Further customary pattems of liturgical activity include: euandria, that is, the competition of 'male-beauties', where brawn and aesthetic appearance were assessed equally. According to Andokides, IV. 42, these competitions were occasionally also organized, to save state ex­ pense, in a liturgical form. Eutaxia (IG, II. 1 72) was the staging of cal­ listhenic exercises simulating military discipline (Spartakiads as they are called nowadays in Slavic countries). Finally, the so-called kanephoria was a liturgical form which provided selected women with an honorable opportunity to take part in a procession carrying pitchers on their head. Liturgies were known and practiced in poleis other than Athens, and thus there may have been some diversity in certain details. There were places, for example, where resort to money was forbidden and only "natural [persona! and in-kind] achievements" were allowed (Miletos), and elsewhere it was not usual for certain recurrent requirements to be allotted on an hereditary basis to one family. C O N D E S C E N D I N G M E D I E V A L C H A RITY

At least since Thomas Aquinas the collection and distribution of alms has been an important aspect of the Christian Church. This cannot be regarded exclusively as a socially oriented or charitable action, because the donor is often inclined to help the destitute in a sort of strategic or socially-oriented fashion than to 'exercise virtue' for its own sake and in the interest of persona! salvation. Through charity, for instance, medie­ val donors often sought to purchase paradise. Charity was advocated to enhance penance, along with prayer, vigils, confession, and fasting. The very concepts of stewardship and serial reciprocity evolved here with reference to the Biblical notion that human beings are servants of God and therefore must contribute a large portion of their time and persona! wealth towards accomplishing God's work. As God's partners, human beings can perfect the world through good deeds; this tradition should be preserved by passing on the good works done for us by doing good works for others. The well-to-do have always been encouraged-or pushed-to con­ tinuously provide (and often in a statutory fashion) insignificant use-

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The Gratis Economy

values (gifts) to the community. The purpose has traditionally been to maintain people unable to earn a living, in particular those who, with their traditional 'laboriously idle' (that is, informally working a great deal but with little to show for it by way of income) way of life, are irrevocably severed from the new wage-earning livelihoods dictated by modernization, urbanization, and industrialization. 2 7 The historical roots of social policy and organized philanthropy go back to late medieval times when the traditional structures of a subsistence economy within urban communities became overburdened by an increase in the number of inhabitants and the influx of rural population. This era of forced de­ velopment had brought about new wealth and new poverty alike. Until that time monastic establishments and the alms distribution of the church had been sufficient to maintain social balance. The emerging new insecurity had to be encountered by different means, by secular urban organizations that were an early sprouting of welfare bureaucracy for the appropriation of poverty taxes. The production of new norms ensued in order to define and regulate cases of entitlement, that is, to determine the expected conduct of those who benefited in return for communal provision. The famous distinction between the 'deserving poor' (citizens with a proven incapacity for work or unemployed due to circumstances beyond their control) and the 'undeserving poor' (aliens, vagrants, and idlers) was established at that time. The undeserving had been relentlessly crowded out of town. 2 8 Contemporary language iden­ tified not only the deserving and undeserving poor but also so-called "sturdy beggars". They were recruited from the ordinary unemployed; unemployable, discharged soldiers; serving-men set adrift by impecuni­ ous gentry; Robin-Hood bands driven from their woodland lairs by de­ forestation; and ploughmen put out of work by enclosures. "Sturdy beg­ gars" were as likely to be whipped as pitied. The relevant provisions were dependent on those criteria-orderly behavior, regular duties, and moral normalcy-that were widely supposed to help those affected to obtain a livelihood, although they had apparently failed to do so hith­ erto. Clerks checked the observance of these criteria. The earlier direct and unregulated link between donor and alms recipient turned into a more disciplined relationship, generating a degree of social security at the price of enhanced severity, known as 'rationality in provisioning'. This process is important for our purposes because a new, only re­ cently charted facet of modemization comes into focus here as the other face of civic socialization and social integration in general: marginalisa­ tion or stigmatization. Only by looking at both sides of the coin can we

The Traditional Gratis Economy-Uncharted Faces of Pro Bono Work

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understand what, since Weber, has been called rationalization; philan­ thropy and poor relief in general are always coupled with such catego­ ries as "social discipline" (Oestreich, 1969), the evolution of societal techniques of dominance and control. 29 This social disciplining of man­ power reached its climax with the onslaught of industrialization when working time was molded to the rhythm of machines. This dialectic of social integration and exclusion is not without examples in philanthropy because good works are predicated on accepting the exclusionary and pauperizing tendencies of market economies (Van Dülmen, 1982). Having mentioned the early forms of bureaucratization I shall now turn my attention to voluntary forms of poor relief. The custom reflects an ancient tradition and doctrine of Christian duty concerning how the empowered rich should help the impotent poor. This way of coping with mendicancy nevertheless has its dubious aspects. According to the his­ torian E. M. Leonard monastic charity was rather "unorganized and indiscriminate" and contributed "nearly as much to increase [the number of] beggars as to relieve them". The monks in Chaucer's England were worldly and well-to-do, living a life of sauntering comfort in the monastery . . . They were not numerous, and having abandoned the manual labor practiced by their predecessors, they maintained armies of servants to carry on the daily routine of their great establishments . . . The monks performed i n person their obligations o f prayers . . . they gave daily alms in money and broken meats to the poor, and showed lavish hospitality to travellers, many of whom were wealthy and exacting guests. (Leonard, 1 900)

After the dissolution of monasteries and the pensioning of monks, friars, and nuns in England and the cessation thereby ofthe dole at the abbey gate: the care of the village was a duty recognized by many a squire's wife, some­ times even by a peeress who used to visit the sick, dose them, and read to them . . . Gradually a proper system of poor relief, based upon compulsory rates, and discriminating between the various classes of the indigent, was evolved. The double duty of providing work for the unemployed and charity for the impotent was gradually recognized by Tudor England as incumbent not merely on the Church and the charitable, but on society as a whole. Administrative schemes evolved: at the end of Elizabeth's reign and under the early Stuart kings, it had become a duty prescribed by national legislation, enforced upon the local magis­ trates by a vigilant Privy Council (the factual governing body of Tudor Eng­ land), and paid for by compulsory Poor Rates. (Trevelyan, 1 942)

The spoliation of another ecclesiastical establishment, the chantries, 30 also affected contemporary non-statutory public services. As Protestant doctrine triumphed in many regions, prayers for the