I’ve long had a fascination with Wilhelm Ropke, outstanding economist, tough-minded anti-Keynesian, political decentralist, advocate of free trade and hard money, author of some outstanding works on political and economic liberty, and also moralist and defender of bourgeois culture. We have a nice collection of his work online and in the store. Today we add online The Social Crisis of Our Time.
So why do people think of him as a proponent of the mixed economy or someone not quite as tough minded as Mises? It seems to have been a matter of politics at the time, it seems to me. If it hadn’t been for the presence of a stalwart like Mises, Ropke would probably have a reputation for intransigence (after all, he too was a victim of the Nazis). Maybe we can just forget all that history and give him a fresh read today?
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Jeff, I read SCOT a few months ago and thought he leaned toward a mixed economy. He sounded a lot like “crunch cons” in that he wanted to give preference to small firms, crafts and agriculture.
Economics of the Free Society is a very free-market work but I got the impression when reading A Humance Economy (which admittedly was a couple of years or so ago) that he sympathised with distributistic forms of state intervention.
I appreciate your efforts re: Ropke. One may not agree with Ropke, but his views do provide some diversity to debates. He was less of a doctrinaire – I particularly like his advocacy of subsidiarity and decentralization of power.
Also, Ropke certainly was liberal in outlook, but perhaps more in the conservative tradition (e.g. that of Edmund Burke).
Ropke’s great, thanks for making this available, looking forward to reading it.
Mises himself considered Roepke an interventionist. He even threaten to cancel his own appearance on first meeting of Mont Pelerin Society 1949, because of presence of people like Roepke, invited there by Hayek.
If you are suggesting that Mises had a low opinion of Ropke, you’re wrong.
Mises has his own opinion, and Ropke his. Mises is not God.
Uh, that doesn’t really establish anything, anon – besides, Röpke was an ordoliberal, and they believe that the state must step in so that the free market can reach its theoretical potential.
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