Wilhelm Röpkes Lehre von der Politischen Ökonomie

Krüsselberg Hans-Günter

ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 1999, vol. 50, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: During the First World War Wilhelm Röpke, a German Soldier, 18 years of age, made the vow - should he survive - to try everything he could „to prevent a recurrence of this catastrophe“, the recurrence of war. The student of economics and social sciences endeavoured to discover the causes of that kind of crisis and to lay the foundation for policies that could eliminate it once and for all. His conjecture was that the overgrowing power of the modern state was the main factor threatening the freedom and the dignity of human beings. And he realized that other centers of power might evolve in societies with an equal potential to hurt the integrity of the individual. This was the basic insight from which the arguments of his „theory of political economy“ were derived, culminating in his concept of a „Third Way“ between capitalism and socialism, - or better: of a „Civitas Humana“, a Human Civil Society. The article explains that Röpke’s ideas centre on the message of an indissoluble interdependence of state, economy and society and of the international and the national order. „Order“ is seen here as a structure of institutions that secure peace and create people’s welfare. - Referring to several examples the autor shows that problems and failures of post-war economic and social policy in Germany basic political recommendations of Röpke’s Theory of Political Economy. That might encourage politicians, economists and sociologists to take notice again of Röpke’s struggling for freedom, security and justice all over the world - and of the necessity to revive the „Lost Art of Economics“: Political Economics.

Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1515/ordo-1999-0103

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