Reincorporating Friedrich von Wieser and the Concept of Power into the Austrian Research Program

This paper constitutes the start of a project dedicated to Austrian economist and economic sociologist Friedrich von Wieser (1851-1926). Its central claim is that especially in recent decades, Wieser has become a disproportionately underresearched scholar, and the paper provides a set of arguments why this is unjustified. Wieser's life and work are portrayed along five dimensions: the innovative social scientist (section 2); the erector of the Austrian School in its formative decades (section 3); the synthesizer of socio-economic ideas (section 4); the teacher to whom scientific credit has been granted undeservedly seldom (section 5); finally, the connector to other contemporaneous paradigms of economics and economic sociology, especially the ones of Max Weber and Vilfredo Pareto (section 6). The paper sets up a meta-presentation of a set of questions that appear crucial at this stage of the project. In subsequent sub-projects, the five above dimensions will be expanded into separate but interdependent expositions. As an example for the initiation of such a sub-project, Wieser's concept of power - a key topos also for the other members of the Viennese "triumvirate" - is revisited (section 7). Since later generations of the Austrian School have been reluctant to use this concept in their systems, this and later inquiries will explore how central Austrian concepts like "spontaneous order" or "human action" may need a reformulation if power relations are explicitly built into the analysis. While the project is primarily conducted as a history of economics endeavor, revisiting Wieser's legacy in general and the significance of power in particular also aims at generating impulses for the further development of the research program of Austrian economics, as well as at a better understanding of the increasing politico-economic fragility and instability of today's Western democracies, phenomena related to power and leadership

F. A. Hayek vs. J. M. Keynes in Shackle's marginal gloss

The intellectual rivalry of F.A. Hayek and J.M. Keynes has recently caught the attention of historians of economic thought, journalists and the broad public. However, how was it viewed at the time? This article uses archival material in the form of marginal annotations made by G.L.S. Shackle to determine contemporary reading responses to the theoretical developments of the 1930s. Shackle’s unique reading style that includes legible, dated, annotations and the fact that a substantial part of his academic library survives, gives us a unique vantage point from which to explore anew this period of intellectual history

Ludwig von Mises and the 'Ordo-Interventionists' More than Just Aggression and Contempt?

This paper explores the four decades of intellectual relationship between the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) and two major representatives of German ordoliberalism, Walter Eucken (1891-1950) and Wilhelm Röpke (1899-1966). The timespan covered starts in the early 1920s and terminates with Röpke's passing in 1966, a period featuring numerous encounters in person and several debates in published works, accompanied by exchange in correspondence. The central goal of the paper is to provide a more nuanced understanding of the reasons for the hostile climate and the confrontation patterns than earlier narratives in secondary literature. A key tool is the technique of embedding the scholarly component of the interactions into a complex network of interpersonal relationships. The four decades are separated into five distinct phases with differently nuanced communication patterns: 1) early socialization echoing the animosities between the Austrian School and the Historical School; 2) initial debates in the 1920s and early 1930s on business cycle theory and policy where seniority and maturity play an important role; 3) clashes on political economy and social philosophy at the Colloque Walter Lippmann in 1938 and during the two initial decades of the Mont Pèlerin Society after 1947; 4) coexistence during the German "economic miracle"; 5) exchanges in the 1960s, including a discussion of archival materials never published before about Mises' only honorary doctorate in economics, awarded to him by the University of Freiburg in 1964. Based on this historical account at the heart of the paper, conjectures are formulated as to why - despite the common ground in the inquiries pursued - the protagonists continuously fail to engage in more fruitful scholarly debates, and hypotheses are formulated about the substantive core at stake. In addition, a critical overview of selected strands within the extensive historiographic literature exploring the Austrian School and ordoliberalism in recent decades is provided, including a specific reading of the concept of neoliberalism

Keynes and Friedman on Expectations Mismatches During the Great Depression

International audienceThis chapter uses the Great Depression as a case study to investigate Keynes’ and Friedman’s respective appraisals of this severe episode. We analyse first Friedman’s explanation of the Great Depression as phenomenon driven by monetary mismatches. We show that the late Friedman eventually put at the core of his explanations for macroeconomic disequilibria the issue of mismatches in short-term nominal expectations. Next, we turn to Keynes. We show how in the very early 30s Keynes shifted his concern from short-term disturbances to dysfunctionings in long-run expectations. Keynes’ appraisal of the Great Depression in terms of coordination failures regarding the intertemporal plans is an alternative to Friedman, an alternative that puts the stress on the indeterminacy of the structure of the economy in the remote future