Von Hayek and Ordoliberalism on Justice

Abstract

Many scholars and scientists have dealt with Ordoliberalism and von Hayek at great length and compared in particular the socio-economic theories of Walter Eucken and Friedrich August von Hayek.2 To name just a few: Watrin (2000) analyzes the varying concepts of the state and government tasks. According to him, Eucken as a member of the Freiburg School of Law and Economics is favouring -more or less -a deliberately designed and 'made'(constructivist) order while von Hayek on the other hand is highly in favour of an evolutionary, 'grown' (spontaneous) order (i.e. constructivist rationalism vs.evolutionary/critical rationalism; see Hayek 1973). Streit andWohlgemuth (2000a and2000b) in turn point at the diverging leitmotifs underlying the conceptions of von Hayek and Eucken:In the centre of Ordoliberalism is the topic of private power or -to put it differently -the question of how to avoid, eliminate or at least reduce the concentration of power in the economic and political sphere. To the contrary, von Hayek is not so much concerned with the problem of power as with the epistemological topic of knowledge. To be more precise: His major concern is the division or fragmentation of widely dispersed knowledge which can be utilized via competitive market processes operating as a discovery procedure. A similar approach as in Streit andWohlgemuth (2000a and2000b) and Watrin (2000) is presented by (2001) are again emphasizing the differences between a self-generating, spontaneous formation of order and a political artefact-order. Besides the role of the state and the agenda of economic policy, they are referring to philosophy of science-aspects resulting from the diverging underlying leitmotifs already mentioned in the two essays by Streit and Wohlgemuth.In retrospect, it is striking that most of the just mentioned subsequent interpretations are highlighting the parallels while the differences are either of minor importance, as in the work focuses on the topic of justice and elaborates the (slightly) differing conceptions of justice within neoliberalism. Thus, the specific contribution of the paper is that it fills the gap and that it adds a further, a sixth dimension of differences (which is highly interconnected with the already mentioned differing conceptions of genesis of norms). To put it differently: In the Social Justice as a 'Weasel-Word'? Von Hayek on Justice"It is now necessary clearly to distinguish between two wholly different problems which the demand for 'social justice' raises in a market order. The first is whether within an economic order based on the market the concept of 'social justice' has any meaning or content whatever. The second is whether it is possible to preserve a market order while imposing upon it (in the name of 'social justice' or any other pretext) some pattern of remuneration based on the assessment of the performance or the needs of different individuals or groups by an authority possessing the power to enforce it. The answer to each of these questions is a clear no" (Hayek 1976: pp....

Le marché sans pouvoir : au cœur du discours ordolibéral

“…Si l'objectif de redistribution demeure modéré afin d'éviter toute paralysie du processus de production (Röpke [1942a], p. 248), leur conception de la justice sociale commutative (égalité des conditions de départ) se double donc d'une partie distributive. Cette dimension les dissocie nettement de l'approche hayekienne (voir Wörsdörfer [2013]). 11 Michel Foucault a certes souligné qu'il n'y avait pas forcément d'ambiguïté à intervenir en faveur du libéralisme, c'est d'ailleurs l'une des caractéristiques du néolibéralisme selon lui, mais les principes régulateurs méritent une mise en discussion.…”

“…Il appartient à l'office de contrôle de la concurrence (institution semi-étatique) d'intervenir afin de contraindre les entreprises monopolistes à un comportement analogue à celui d'une situation effectivement concurrentielle (Section IV). Là encore, les spécificités ordolibérales relativement à l'approche standard d'économie industrielle, mais surtout vis-à-vis de Friedrich Hayek -pourtant fréquemment rapproché de l'ordolibéralisme (Bönker et Wagener [2001] ; Kolev [2010] ; Vanberg [2013] ; Wörsdörfer [2013]) -, apparaîtront nettement.…”

Individual versus Regulatory Ethics: An Economic-Ethical and Theoretical-Historical Analysis of German Neoliberalism

“…The overall aim is the social embeddedness of each individual and the satisfactory 'vital situation' (Vitalsituation). In this regard, self-responsibility, independency, self-employment and the diffusion of private property (i.e., private property not only fosters independency and autonomy, it also provides the necessary material foundations for the de facto realisation of positive rights of freedom) have to be promoted and encouraged as well as equality before the law, equal access (to education and other public institutions), equal opportunities and equal starting conditions (Startgerechtigkeit) (Wörsdörfer, 2013). 45 In a letter from Eucken to Rüstow dating from December 1943 (see Lenel, 1991, 13), Eucken admits: "The economic order is not able to render the people more ethical.…”

“…The marketplace (agora) was primarily the site of public discussions and ('democratic') participation and not the site of economic transactions and exchange. Further parallels between Röpke, Rüstow and Aristotle exist with regards to their theories of justice distinguishing between distributive and commutative justice (Wörsdörfer, 2013), and in terms of (Aristotelian) virtue ethics (i.e., areté/virtus as being part of a happy life (eudaimonia); theory of mesotes (the golden mean)) (Aristotle, 2012;Schefold, 1994;Schefold, 1999;Schefold, 2003). 51 This includes a policy fostering the acquisition and diffusion of private property, a policy fighting the unequal distribution of wealth, excessive inequalities and income disparities (since they are threatening social cohesion), a policy fighting proletarianisation, massification and disintegration, an education policy aiming at realizing justice of the starting conditions, and a policy promoting inclusion, integration and participation of all classes of society (e.g.…”