Albert Otto Hirschman bol ekonóm a autor viacerých kníh o politickej ekonómii a politickej ideológii. Jeho prvý významný prínos bol v oblasti rozvojovej ekonómie, kde zdôraznil potrebu nevyváženého rastu. Tvrdil, že nerovnováhy by mali byť povzbudzované na stimuláciu rastu a mobilizáciu zdrojov, pretože rozvojové krajiny postrádajú rozhodovacie schopnosti. Kľúčové pre to bolo podporovať priemyselné odvetvia s mnohými väzbami na iné firmy. Jeho neskoršia práca sa zaoberala politickou ekonómiou, kde predložil dve schémy. Prvá opisuje tri základné možné reakcie na úpadok firiem alebo politických systémov (odchod, vyjadrenie názoru, mlčanie) v knihe „Exit, Voice, and Loyalty“ (1970). Druhá opisuje základné argumenty konzervatívcov (zvratnosť, zbytočnosť a ohrozenie) v knihe „The Rhetoric of Reaction“ (1991).
Reconstructs the intellectual climate of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to illuminate the intricate ideological transformation that occurred, wherein the pursuit of material interests - so long condemned as the deadly sin of avarice - was assigned the role of containing the unruly and destructive passions of man.
An innovator in contemporary thought on economic and political development looks here at decline rather than growth. Albert O. Hirschman makes a basic distinction between alternative ways of reacting to deterioration in business firms and, in general, to dissatisfaction with organizations: one, "exit," is for the member to quit the organization or for the customer to switch to the competing product, and the other, "voice," is for members or customers to agitate and exert influence for change "from within." The efficiency of the competitive mechanism, with its total reliance on exit, is questioned for certain important situations. As exit often undercuts voice while being unable to counteract decline, loyalty is seen in the function of retarding exit and of permitting voice to play its proper role. The interplay of the three concepts turns out to illuminate a wide range of economic, social, and political phenomena. As the author states in the preface, "having found my own unifying way of looking at issues as diverse as competition and the two-party system, divorce and the American character, black power and the failure of 'unhappy' top officials to resign over Vietnam, I decided to let myself go a little."
Anschaulich und präzise deckt der international angesehene Wirtschaftstheoretiker Albert O. Hirschman die drei Grundfiguren reaktionären Argumentierens gestern und heute auf. Die erste besagt, daß jeder Versuch, bestimmte Gegebenheiten zu verbessern, nur die Lage verschlimmere. Die zweite These beharrt darauf, daß jede Veränderung vergeblich sei und am Lauf der Geschichte nichts ändern könne. Das dritte Argument schließlich unterstellt, daß eine Veränderung zwar wünschenswert, aber leider unbezahlbar sei. Hirschman überzeugt davon, daß nur ein beständiger Kommunikationsprozeß diese Form des Argumentierens überwinden kann.