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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Skepticism About Markets and Optimism About Culture

Author : Henrique Schneider

Published in: Wilhelm Röpke (1899–1966)

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Schneider emphasizes that especially in A Humane Economy, Wilhelm Röpke’s distrust of the market is compensated for by his trust in culture. This can be contradictory, given Röpke’s general cultural pessimism. Röpke trusted the market as an organizational principle, but he dismissed assigning to it the main role in organizing society. For Schneider, Röpke very specifically meant bourgeois culture and was optimistic about this particular culture. However, Röpke left open questions: Was there ever a bourgeois culture? By which (epistemic) criterion did he assign this leading role to it? Could his appreciation of freedom clash with his appreciation of culture? Schneider finally claims that if Röpke had recognized the market as a process, it would have been much easier to reconcile market and culture.

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previous chapter Wilhelm Röpke on Liberalism, Culture, and Economic Development

next chapter Democracy, Liberalism, and Moral Order in Wilhelm Röpke: A Comparison with James M. Buchanan

There are more concepts that require definition in that brief passage, for example, competition and the difference between moral support and moral prerequisite. However, the three mentioned above are the most important in light of this paper’s subject.

The term “liberal” will be used here broadly to encompass the thinking that assigns to the market—either as an institution or as a process—a fundamental role (at least) in the economic organization of a society. Liberals will call for free markets and the broad use of markets in economic and social settings. This, however, is not the place for an analysis of the different usages of the term nor is the market the only component of liberal thought—many would claim that freedom is. For these discussions, see, e.g., Mirowski and Plehwe (2009) or Schneider (2014).

The word “culture” itself derives from a French term, which in turn derives from the Latin colere, which means to tend to the earth and grow or cultivation and nurture.

The second part of this quote might have a reactionary and/or exclusivist ring to it. However, it is interesting to observe that many a monetarist and so-called neoliberal in the 1990s—this irony must have made Röpke turn in his grave—went around the world preaching the causal relation of free market and free society. Based on this postulate, many pro-market reforms were made, which were no doubt a step in the right direction. But many a country proved them wrong: markets came and even became freer than before, but free society did not follow. According to Röpke, however, free markets can only unfold on the basis of the bourgeois society.

For Röpke’s development in Istanbul, see the chapter by Antonio Masala and Özge Kama in this volume.

There are three dominant theories in normative ethics. Röpke was a profound critic of utilitarianism/consequentialism. This is the position holding that the best moral action is the one that maximizes utility. Röpke’s opinion of deontology, the position that judges the morality of an action based on the action’s adherence to a rule or rules, is less clear. Here, however, he will be treated as a virtue ethicist. Virtue ethics emphasizes the role of one’s character and the virtues that one’s character embodies for determining or evaluating ethical behavior. His conception of culture as bourgeois morality will be seen in this paper as an influence on the character of individuals (Crisp and Slote 1997).

Also, in Civitas Humana Röpke acknowledges anthropological constants: relationships toward private property, gender, the community, work, and leisure (Röpke 1979, p. 159). Also, he speaks of a “consensus saeculorum” (sic!)—a consensus emerging from human history—regarding aesthetics (Röpke 1952, p. 164).

For example, in Hayek (Posner 2005) and Ayn Rand (Rand 1964).

The region of Appenzell consists of two cantons (states) that were separated after a civil war concerning which Christian denomination to adhere to: Innerrhoden remained Catholic and Ausserrhoden became Protestant, but even Innerrhoden claimed differences with the Catholic Abbey of St. Gall, which is only 17 km away, and became an exempt region, i.e., directly under the administration of the Pope rather than the Bishop of St. Gall.

Karl Renner, an Austrian Social Democrat, described Röpke as a “communitarian liberal.”

One could go even further and say impossible to implement (a) since that culture never existed in Röpke’s normativity and (b) because of the inner problems of his conception of culture.

In Die Lehre von der Wirtschaft, Röpke dedicates a chapter to the imbalances of the market identifying the sources of the imbalances and how to stabilize the market. To be fair, he also states that the more policies of stabilization are implemented, the less stable the markets become (Röpke 1943, p. 292).

In a private conversation (March 2016).

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Title: Skepticism About Markets and Optimism About Culture
Author: Henrique Schneider
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Wilhelm Röpke (1899–1966)
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68356-0

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-68357-7

Copyright Year: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68357-7_15