German Neo-Liberals and the Social Market Economy

SIR ALAN PEACOCK is Executive Director of the David Hume Institute, Edinburgh, and Research Professor in Public Finance at the Esmée Fairbairn Research Centre, Heriot-Watt University. He has held senior academic appointments at the London School of Economics and at the Universities of Edinburgh, York and Buckingham. He was the first Vice-Chancellor of the privately-funded University of Buckingham. He has written extensively in academic journals, periodicals and volumes of essays on the economics of public policy. In addition to his academic career, Sir Alan has been Chief Economic Adviser to the Department of Trade and Industry and has acted as consultant to several international bodies. He served in the United Kingdom on the Royal Commission on the Constitution and, more recently, was Chairman of the Committee on Financing the British Broadcasting Corporation. In 1979 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy. He was knighted in 1987.HANS WILLGERODT is Professor of Economics and co-Director of the Institute for Economic Policy at the University of Cologne, where he taught since 1963. He studied economics at the University of Bonn and became a Reader in Economics there in 1961. He is co-editor (and formerly managing director) of the Ordo yearbook, as well as being co-editor of the Journal of Economic Policy and other publications of the Institute for Economic Policy. Professor Willgerodt has written on problems of the labour market, wealth andits distribution, trade policy, European monetary integration and many other topics. He was a member, until 1969, of the commission of experts appointed by the Federal Government in the Federal Republic of Germany to investigate the country's experience with co-determination. He is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and also of the Kronenberger Kreis, a group of economists and lawyers who publish suggestions for reform of the West German economy.

• Trade Policy Research Centre Notes on the Contributors Preface OVERALL VIEW OF THE GERMAN LIBERAL MOVEMENT; A.Peacock and H.Willegerodt Policy Objectives 'Spontaneous' and 'Corrective' Orders Economic Policy Monetary Control Competition Policy Public Sector Concluding Remarks EVOLUTION OF THE SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY; H.O.Lenel Introduction of a Market Economy Importance of Principles in Economic Systems Aims and Elements of the System Importance of Conformity Social Policy Aims Freedom in the Economic System Framework for Economic Systems Ownership of Property Continuity of Economic Policy Importance of the Public Sector EXILES AND HALF-EXILES: WILHELM RA-PKE, ALEXANDER RAuSTOW AND WALTER EUKEN; D.Johnson Background and Careers Response to the 1930s Depression Emergence of Neo-liberal Thought Walter Eucken and the Freiberg Group Refutation of Historicism Eucken and Die Grundlagen der Nationalokonomie Community of Exiles in Turkey Wilhelm Ropke and his Work Contribution of Alexander Rustow ROLE OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR IN THE SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY; N.Kloten Forms of State Control Role of the Public Sector The New State and the Basic Policy Decisions Birth of the Social Market Economy Reconstruction of the Public Sector Performance of the Public Sector Labour Relations Competition Policy Some Causes of Failure Identified The Problem of Monopoly Labour-market Problems Overall Demand Management Exchange-rate Policy Analysis of Failure Social Policy A Few Conclusions POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF GERMAN NEO-LIBERALS; N.P.Barry Contemporary Revival of Liberalism Main Elements of the Social Market Economy Beyond Supply and Demand Conclusion FRANZ BA-HM AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC-CONSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS; J.Tumlir Personality, Experience, Philosophy Problem of Private Power The Notion of 'Re-feudalisation' Private Law Society Historical Development of Private Law The State and the Constitution Choice of an Economic Constitution Conclusion COMPETITION POLICY FROM AN ORDO POINT OF VIEW; W.Moschel Development of the Idea of Competition Recent Historical Background Goal of Competition: Freedom or Efficiency Impossibility of Competition Uselessness of Competition Law Doctrines of Selective Intervention Philosophical Basis of the Ordo-liberal Competition Concept Historical Influence of Ordo-liberalism Role of the State Rule of Law versus Discretionar Decisions Competition Policy and the General Economic System SOCIAL POLICY AND THE SOCIAL MARKET ECONOMY; J.Wiseman What is the 'Social Market Economy'? A Simplistic Formulisation Market Economy and Social Market Economy A Few Practical Worries Analytical Reflections Social Market Economy in Practice Concluding Comments and Proposals INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER: CONTRIBUTION OF ORDO-LIBERALS; G.Curzon Diagnosis of the Problem Essential Underpinnings of the Liberal International System Collectivism, Keynesianism, Inflation and Pseudo-order Causes of Social Disintegration European Integration and Ordo-Liberalism Ordo-liberals and Less-developed Countries Conclusion ORDO-LIBERALS AND THE CONTROL OF THE MONEY SUPPLY; P.Bernholz Sound Money and a Free Market System Monetary Stability Type of Money, Monetary Constitution, Business Cycles and Inflation Problems of the International Monetary System Problem of an Adequate Monetary System Conclusions List of References Index