Jacob Bielfeld’s “On the Decline of States” (1760) and Its Relevance for Today

Erik Reinert ()

Chapter 8 in Great Nations at Peril, 2015, pp 133-172 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The idea of economic decline has been with us for a very long time. The notion that human societies are bound to follow the cyclical patterns of nature—birth, life, decline, and death—is found from the Greek philosophy of Plato to the Arab philosophy of Ibn-Khaldun. Only late Renaissance and Enlightenment Entzauberung—demystification—of the world picture view freed mankind from the cyclical vicissitudes of the blindfolded goddess Fortuna and opened up for rational economic policy to prevent booms and bust. During the last century, the theory of decline in the West manifested itself in German Kulturpessimismus with Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West (1918), in the USA with Paul Kennedy’s The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987), but also as harsh reality in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Keywords: Economic Decline; Harsh Reality; Powerful Ally; Republican State; Diverse Branch (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Working Paper: Jacob Bielfeld's ''On the ''Decline of States''(1760) and its Relevance for Today (2013)
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-10055-5_8

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