No abstract

Michel Foucault’s lectures at the Collège de France in 1978–1979 centered on the analysis of power with regard to liberalism. Foucault especially focused on German ordoliberalism and its specific governmentality. Although Foucault’s review of the ordoliberal texts, programs, and books is very accurate there are some occasional “schematic” simplifications. Our article evaluates Foucault’s constitution of an ordoliberal “archive,” though more emphasis is placed on the general importance of the phenomenological orientation in Walter Eucken’s work. Hence, three tasks guide our paper: first, an analysis of Foucault’s position; second, the phenomenological foundation of ordoliberal discourse compared to 18th century liberal discourse, i.e. the way in which Walter Eucken received Husserl. Third, our article raises the subject of the mutual historical-epistemological complementation of philosophy and economics by taking Foucault’s analysis as the starting point. Furthermore, the consequences of a phenomenological, i.e. “eidetic” order of the economy, is discussed, focusing mainly on the expansion of competition in social domains. JEL Codes: B20, B29, B40

Abstract:This paper analyzes the relation of culture, institutions and economic development using the example of Indonesia. The success of economic catch-up development depends essentially on the interconnection between pre-existing informal constraints on the one hand and novel, imported institutions on the other. Hence culture, understood as the interplay between legal rules and non-legal constraints, has to be considered as an important determinant of economic development and growth. In order to adapt economic policies and thereby prevent institutional traps, which may otherwise hinder economic reforms, it is essential to understand culture and the ways in which different cultural factors support or constrain the functioning of formal institutional settings. Applying a cultural approach to economics in the case of Indonesia's economic development allows for the inclusion of complex cultural conditionality of economic behavior and puts special emphasis on the role of politicians as public and cultural entrepreneurs. Altogether, the example of Indonesia demonstrates once more the necessity to apply a cultural approach to the study of catch-up development in a globalized world.

ABSTRACT. The present study aims to add to our knowledge about economic rhetoric by conducting a data-driven analysis of economic academic discourse, both synchronically in its contemporary form, and diachronically over the past four decades. We find (1) that linguistically, economics is clearly an academic genre of its own, (2) that there are at the same time clear differences in vocabulary and style usage across economic journals, and (3) that there have been major developments in economic prose during the past four decades. We argue that there is some, albeit tentative, evidence that the discipline may face an increasing methodological gap.

Social Market Economy, Ordo-liberalism, A11, B20, H10, N44,