Wilhelm Ropke: Swiss Localist, Global Economist

Wilhelm Röpke is a brilliant German-born economic, social and political theorist, and perhaps my favorite amongst the "Austrian school." He stands apart from his colleagues in that he thinks on a more humane level rejecting crude utilitarian calculations in favor of sound empirical reasoning. The crux of Röpke's economic thought is that the individual counts. This brilliant German economist of the "Austrian school" stood up to the centralizing and dehumanizing policies of the Nazis. Collectivist ideologies lay waste to civil society-destroying the intermediary institutions between individual and state-supplanting them with institutions to empower and enhance the state. Röpke recognized that allocating resources by the fair play of supply and demand is the most humane system and he was champion of the market economy. He was influential over economist Ludwig Erhard, who architected FRG's postwar economic plan, which emphasized free enterprise. Röpke possessed some peculiarities in his lexicon that set in him apart from his colleagues, but his motive for such peculiarities was principled. Röpke rejected characterizing socialism as a "planned economy" since in his view a market economy is just an economy "planned" by entrepreneurs as opposed to state planners. He preferred the delineation of "market economy" to "capitalism," since what often passed for capitalism in the early twentieth century was a large interventionist welfare state in a cozy lockstep relationship with big business monopolists. This was state corporatism not capitalism. Moreover, "capitalism" was, of course, coined by its chief critic Karl Marx and while the term captures the importance of capital to the market economy, it remains rather sterile. Capitalism frequently connotes a materialistic consumerist ideology or images of big business rather than a social framework based on the market economy. Röpke would attest that mammon is not the measure of all things. In Röpke's eyes, the intangibles-that is to say faith, family and tradition-are the things that animate life and give it meaning. Röpke recognizes the limitations of the market economy. Röpke possesses a remarkable sense of prudence and conservative sobriety in his thinking as it relates to the political economy. He rejected the idea of making economists into social engineers whether in the interests of "efficiency" or "social justice." And amongst his "Austrian" colleagues like F.A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, he brought economics to a more humane level, rejecting crude utilitarian logic in favor of more humane empirical reasoning to defend the market economy. Furthermore, he refrains from the market idolatry that is so common to libertarian apologists for the free-market these days. Libertarians frequently espouse an ideology that can be summed up as "everything in the market, nothing outside the market." (This, of course, turns Mussolini's mantra on its nose.) Röpke recognizes something that libertarians miss with thei

A window on the most turbulent decades of the twentieth century, seen through the eyes of Wilhelm Röpke, outstanding economist and social thinker. A tale skillfully retold by a scholar of our times in this very readable account of Röpke's life and work. A pleasure for anyone interested in the economic history of the twentieth century. Röpke's insights into the Great Depression, the errors of National Socialism and, after World War II, attempts at reconstruction and reform have the ring of truth and are of relevance to our times.

This short volume on the life and, especially, ideas of Wilhelm Röpke is notable for its breadth, depth, and timeliness. The book is both well written and crafted, as John Zmirak demonstrates a good eye and ear for extensive quotations from Röpke and others, and the deference to let these sources often speak for themselves. Röpke's courageous role in opposing Hitler and the Nazis, and his guiding role in the German recovery after World War II, are certainly worth revisiting today, following the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the reunification of Germany. His ideas on the economic role of government - embracing policies to maintain competition and reduce monopoly power; independent monetary policies and fiscal conservatism; the decentralization or subsidiarity of both government and industry; and support for families and a wide range of cultural and voluntary organizations and institutions - are now echoed in political agendas for compassionate conservatism. But they are also heard from the other side of the aisle and in liberal economic agendas, for example including some of Allan Blinder's general policy prescriptions in his Hard Heads, Soft Hearts. Even Röpke's "Third Way" ideas on small-scale businesses and communities are regaining currency and sounding considerably less naïve with the growth of the service and information economies, and the persistent downsizing of global corporations.Most of all, Röpke deserves reading and discussion today as a social thinker. It is a classic understatement to say that few of those who have since adopted specific policies that he championed have had his knowledge of history, literature, culture, and economics. With that background, Röpke still offers unique insights on how and why the modern world faces many of the problems it does, and on the prospects or dangers of various remedies that have been proposed to deal with those problems. One of the specialized problems that concerned him most, which economists in particular would still do well to consider and try to address, is the question of why capitalism and laissez-faire economics engender so little popular or heartfelt support, and so much adamant and enduring opposition.

The author has done an excellent job in pinpointing to what extent Wilhelm Röpke, in his most mature work, was fired by his first-hand knowledge and experience of the small-scale, directly democratic, and partially corporatistic and communitarian institutions of his Swiss environment. Röpke's twin emphasis, on the one hand on private property rights, individual liberty and self-reliance, and on the other on a social setup characterized by face-to-face networks can be regarded as an antidote against the incipient facelessness of both an atomized capitalistic mass society and a bureaucratic welfare state. -Robert Nef,

Wilhelm Röpke was really a great personality and an important figure in the history of liberal thinking. It was certainly worthwhile to publish a book on him and Zmirak has done a great job. He shows, that Röpke was not only an economist, but also a profound social philosopher. This reconciliation of technocratic economies and human values would be even more needed nowadays than at the time of Röpke. Zmirak shows better than other books on Röpke, that the Swiss social and political system was very important for Röpke's thinking, that many ideas were new only to Germans or Americans, but draw on Swiss history and Swiss experience. -, Neue Zürcher Zeitung