From Historicizing to the Obsolescence of War

Renata Allio ()
Additional contact information
Renata Allio: University of Turin

Chapter Chapter 3 in War in Economic Theories over Time, 2020, pp 57-76 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter concerns the thought of economists on war, as an event linked to the political and economic conditions of the time. Friedrich List in the early part of the 1800s looked at the economic situation of the German states and the need for them to unite politically and develop economically, to be achieved, if required, though conflict too. List criticized Smith’s economics and the free traders in general who wanted to substitute “national and popular sovereignty” by the “presumed universal laws” of free trade. All in all, the same argument was employed by the German historical school and professorial socialism. Sombart held that the development of capitalism was linked to war as the latter greatly increased demand, the essential condition for growth. Furthermore, during crises single nation’s economic interests prevail over international ones and a common interest does not really exist, as free traders maintained. Schumpeter, who believed in the pacifist vocation of industrial society, on the other hand considered war to be atavism, a throwback to preindustrial society where an unproductive nobility gained wealth though violence and war loot.

Keywords: War as a historical phenomenon; Neo-mercantilism; Friedrich List and the German unification; German historical school; Werner Sombart; War atavism; Archaism of war (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:pshchp:978-3-030-39617-6_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9783030396176

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-39617-6_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().