빌헬름 뢰프케의 경제, 사회, 정치질서 개념에 대한 연구

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce the idea of Wilhelm Röpke, a prominent theorist of ordoliberalism and social market economy, focusing on his representative works “A Humane Economy” and “Civitas Humana”, and to investigate the characteristics of his analysis as well as its distinctiveness from other schools of economics. For this, the study sets out his ideas concerning the orders of economy, society, and politics, with special focus on his concept of order. His discussion of competition, monopoly, and proletarianization is highlighted regarding the relationship between the three kinds of orders. He contrasted the free and the collectivistic orders as a holistic complex consisting of economic, social, and political aspects. He argued that only the free order was suitable to human nature, while the collectivistic order was deemed to cause inflation, undergrowth, and disintegration of society. Nevertheless, he warned against the possibility that the free order might collapse due to environmental change, even without collectivistic interventions, which leads him to admit justifications for monopoly regulations or government supports for small businesses and farms. Ordoliberalism challenges the Keynesian school’s insistence on state intervention with the economic process. As opposed to neoclassical economics, it does not embrace mathematical methods and modeling. In addition, it is distinct from the Austrian and Chicago schools of economics by its advocacy of decentralization in all aspects of economy, society, and political power, as well as its critique against monopolistic and large-scale production systems. The revisit to the idea of Röpke shall be instructive in understanding the fundamentals of ordoliberalism. Also, it can contribute to deepening the analysis of the contemporary economy by supplying theoretical and methodological resources.