Description
This volume provides a comprehensive account of Wilhelm Rpke as a liberal political economist and social philosopher. Wilhelm Rpke (1899-1966) was a key protagonist of transatlantic neoliberalism, a prominent public intellectual and a gifted international networker. As an original thinker, he always positioned himself at the interface between political economy and social philosophy, as well as between liberalism and conservatism. Rpke’s endeavors to combine these elements into a coherent whole, as well as his embeddedness in European and American intellectual networks of liberal and conservative thinkers, are a central theme throughout the book. The volume includes papers by international experts from a conference in Geneva on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Rpke’s passing. The first part focuses on new biographical insights into his exile years in Istanbul and Geneva, while the second part discusses his business cycle theory in the context of the Great Depression, and the third part elaborates on his multifaceted social philosophy. Wilhelm Rpke was among the most important thinkers within the classical liberal revival post-WWII, with intriguing tensions between liberalism and conservatism. A highly recommended volume. — Peter J. Boettke, 2016-2018 President of the Mont Plerin Society and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, George Mason University This important collection of papers provides an in-depth assessment of Wilhelm Rpke’s contributions, placing him in the context of his time. A fine contribution. — Bruce J. Caldwell, Director of the Center for the History of Political Economy and Research Professor of Economics, Duke University Patricia Commun is a professor of German studies at the University of Cergy-Pontoise, France. Her fields of research are history of German economic thought, history of German liberalism and especially ordoliberalism. Patricia Commun’s last book (“Les Ordolibraux. Histoire d’un libralisme l’allemande”, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2016) covers the historical, political, and intellectual context of the refounding of German liberalism in the 1920s-1950s. Together with Stefan Kolev, she co-organized in April 2016 the International Wilhelm Rpke Conference in Geneva. Stefan Kolev is a professor of political economy at the University of Applied Sciences Zwickau, Germany, and the deputy director of the Wilhelm Rpke Institute in Erfurt, Germany. His fields of research are history of economic thought, Austrian economics, and constitutional political economy. Stefan Kolev’s last book (“Neoliberale Staatsverstndnisse im Vergleich”, 2nd edition, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Berlin/Boston 2017) analyzes comparatively the political economies of ordoliberals and Austrian economists of the 20th century, whereas his current projects address the 19th century origins of these ideas and their revitalization for the 21st century. I. Wilhelm Rpke as a Pragmatic Political Economist and Eclectic Social Philosopher: An Introduction.- II. Wilhelm Rpke: New Biographical Insights.- 1. Between Two Continents: Wilhelm Rpke’s Years in Istanbul.- 2. Wilhelm Rpke’s Utopia and Swiss Reality: From Neoliberalism to Neoconservatism.- 3. The Making of the “Third way”: Wilhelm Rpke, Luigi Einaudi, and the Identity of Neoliberalism.- 4. Paleo- and Neoliberals: Ludwig von Mises and the “Ordo Interventionists”.- III. Wilhelm Rpke as a Political Economist: Between Keynes and the Austrians.- 5. The Moral Foundations of Society and Technological Progress of the Economy in the Workof Wilhelm Rpke.- 6. Was Wilhelm Rpke Really a Proto-Keynesian?.- 7. Wilhelm Rpke’s Report on the Brauns Commission: Advocating a Pragmatic Business Cycle Policy.- 8. The Secondary Depression: An Integral Part of Wilhelm Rpke’s Business Cycle Theory.- IV. Wilhelm Rpke as a Social Philosopher: Between Conservatism and Liberalism.- IV. A) Wilhelm Rpke and Conservatism.- 9. From Basel to Brooklyn: Liberal Cultural Pessimism in Jacob Burckhardt, Wilhelm Rpke, and the American Neoconservatives.- 10. Wilhelm Rpke: Why He Was a Conservative.- 11. Wilhelm Rpke and American Conservatism.- 12. Cultural Pessimism and Liberal Regeneration? Wilhelm Rpke as an Ideological In-between in German Social Philosophy.- IV. B) Wilhelm Rpke and Liberalism.- 13. Wilhelm Rpke on Liberalism, Culture, and Economic Development.- 14. Scepticism about Markets and Optimism about Culture.- 15. Democracy, Liberalism, and Moral Order in Wilhelm Rpke: A Comparison with James M. Buchanan.- 16. The Relevance of Wilhelm Rpke in a Post-Totalitarian World.
