Ma`rifat Eqtesadi

Market governance, as a new framework in public policy, emphasizes the distribution of power between the government, the private sector, and civil society, and encompasses the areas of policymaking, regulation, and facilitation to achieve public interests through the synergy of social capacities. The difference in the methodology of economic propositions between the positive-normative dichotomy and the large volume of research on it have 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 mainly relies 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) has conceived the issue of market governance under normative economics. Theories of market governance do not simply describe how the market “works,” but prescribe how the market “should be governed” to maximize social welfare. It is therefore appropriate to reframe 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.