Prof. Franz Josef Stegmann Bethlehem Social ... - Ordo Socialis

Stegmann
Social Market Economy to be a contradiction in itself, a "wooden iron", and rejected its social
dimension. 44
In 1997, the Latin American provincials of the Society of Jesus published a "Letter and Study
Document on Neo-Liberalism in Latin America". They described ''the neo-liberal economic
logic" in South America as "a concept of the human person which limits the greatness of man
and woman to their capacity to generate monetary income". That is exactly the point of view
from which classical economic liberalism and its absolute rationalism assess the world of
industry and commerce, and reject any criteria coming from outside as "alien to the economy-
including social and moral considerations”. Therefore, "neoliberalism, as it is understood in
Latin America" - and in other parts of the world - "is a radical conception of capitalism". 45
As far as I can see, neoliberalism as developed in Central Europe differs to a large degree
from these examples and from what is called neoliberalism in other parts of the world. What I
call "European neoliberalism”, in principle, adheres to the economy of free competition; at the
same time, however, it recognises that old or classical economic liberalism has degenerated
into a pure profit economy by establishing nightmares such as Manchesterism or Manchester
Capitalism: therefore, European neoliberals try to eliminate it.
After World War Two, to mention just one example, Alexander Rüstow - one of the
neoliberal fathers of Social Market Economy - published the book The Failure of Economic
Liberalism. 46 He pointed in particular to the lack of an economic framework in classical
economic liberalism and to its "socially blind eyes". The hook became famous, was published
in a number of editions, and had a great deal of influence on economics and economic policy.
In contrast to the old economic liberalism, Alexander Rüstow and his fellow European
neoliberals put special emphasis on the necessity for social conditions and objectives to be
met and on the importance of a legal framework, set to economic activities and to the
economy as a whole. They therefore created the term "Palaeoliberalism” in order to
distinguish the old or palaeo - as the Greek expression reads - liberalism from the modern
"socially orientated” 47 neoliberalism. This old or palaeo economic liberalism without social
aims and social responsibility - and still existing in parts of the world -is considerably
different from what they called neoliberalism, or "socially orientated" neoliberalism.
(Whenever I use the expressions neoliberal or neoliberalism, I am talking about this European
neoliberalism.) We should therefore watch closely in order to understand what sort of
neoliberalism someone is talking about.
An influential school of thought within neoliberalism is the so-called "ordoliberalism". Its
main feature is the concept of "ordo": the ordered competition, the ordered economic
conditions, ordered by a strong state. (The academic yearbook of neoliberal economics in
Germany, which still exists today, is called Ordo.) The idea of ordered or regulated compe-
44
See Friedrich August Von Hayek, Gesetzgebung und Freiheit' Eine neue Darstellung der liberalen Prinzipien
der Gerechtigkeit und der politischen Ökonomie, 3 Vols'' Landsberg am Lech 1980‐1981; 2nd volume: Die
Illusion der sozialen Gerechtigkeit.
45
The Latin American Provincials of the Society of Jesus, Letter and Study Document on Neo‐Liberalism in Latin
America, in: Promotio lustitiae, No' 67. May, 1997, 41‐60. 45. 48.
46 2
Alexander Rüstow. Das Versagen des Wirtschaftsliberalismus. Bad Godesberg 1950.
47
See Alexander Rüstow. Paläoliberalismus, Kommunismus, Neoliberalismus, in: Das christliche Gewissen und
die Soziale Marktwirtschaft. Offprint from Junge Wirtschaft, No. 2 / February 1960, 3‐7.
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