Ma`rifat Eqtesadi

Market governance, as a new framework in policy-making, regulation, and public facilitation, emphasizes the distribution of power between the government, the private sector, and civil society organizations in order to secure public interests through the synergy of social capacities. In this article, we examine the methodology of the market governance issue from the perspective of conventional economics and Islamic economics using an analytical method. Based on the research findings, the dominance of the positive-normative duality in economic methodology has caused economic issues to be typically discussed under these two types of propositions; while it is necessary to use the methodology of prescriptive propositions in the research methodology of the issue of market governance. Although conventional economics relies mainly on neoclassical positivism and reduces governance to the framework of market failures or spontaneous market order, it can be shown that even the regulatory capture perspective (the main opponents of market intervention) places the issue of market governance under normative economics. Theories on market governance do not simply describe how the market “works”, but prescribe how the market “should be governed” to maximize social welfare. Therefore, it is appropriate to define the methodology of market governance, especially from the perspective of Islamic economics, under prescriptive economics. This methodology moves research from mere description of reality or valuation to the design of institutional mechanisms and practical arrangements.