The Historical School: From Friedrich List to the Social Market Economy. Zemfira Nazarova

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      Arabic parable «The Truth»

      PREDICTION

      What is truth? And how can it be attained? Especially when it comes to history, the history of economic development and especially the history of economic doctrines. In ancient times, when religion played an important role in human life, chroniclers who lived under rulers presented events from the standpoint of the interests of the ruler and the church. In the era of the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the first scientific and technological revolution, there were works of a social nature that described the events and achievements of the rulers from the standpoint of the state and society, and the church receded into the background, although it continued to have a fairly active influence on people’s lives. Today the task of a researcher in the field of history of economic science is not only to search for the truth, but also to present it objectively and comprehensively, so that its study by researchers can be further developed, economic recommendations can be developed, and the economic policy of the state can be formed.

      As noted Russian historian and historiographer Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky, it is necessary to find meaning in nonsense, it is in this unpleasant duty of the historian, and in an intelligent case to find meaning will be able to any philosopher.

      Defining the meaning and usefulness of the study of history, a representative of the neo-Austrian school, economist Ludwig von Mises in his work «Theory and History: Interpretation of Socio-Economic Evolution, comparing his understanding of the tasks of history with the views of German historians, noted that the task of history – to record not all past events, but only historically significant. Therefore, it is necessary to find a criterion that would allow to filter what is historically significant from what is not. And, according to the representatives of the historical school, the study of history provides man with road signs that show him the path he should follow. Man can succeed only if his actions are in accordance with the tendencies of evolution. To discover these tendencies is the main task of history. The opinion of the representatives of the historical school seems to be more significant from the point of view of the realities of the 21st century, since there is still no one who has found the criteria that would allow to filter out what is historically significant from what is not. And should this be done? In this regard, the main task of the author of this monograph is to present materials related to the retrospective analysis of the emergence and development of economic thought in Germany, which went from the economic policy of the free cities, the «educational, national protectionism» of Friedrich List, to the ordoliberalism, to the ordo-liberalism of the second half of the twentieth century and the economic policy of modern Germany of the twenty-first century, with its successes and failures, in the context of the crisis of world migration, the coronavirus pandemic and the bacchanalia of sanctions against Russia, in which it is involved. The ideas of the historical school were, in fact, a product of the environment in which they were born, and gave roots to the formation of economic policy in Hitler’s Germany and post-war Germany, and gave quite significant sprouts in tsarist Russia (it is enough to recall the economic policy of S.Y. Witte).

      Also in 1956 in West Germany was published the book «Welfare for All» by the German professor and politician Ludwig Erhard, which was a great success among readers. This book, which was published in Russia in 1991 (the first reprint in Russian was published in Germany in 1960), became a bestseller in our country, although it was undeservedly forgotten a few years later. The experiences and ideas contained in it would be very interesting for our reforms. Its author, Ludwig Erhard, this remarkable scientist, was fortunate to successfully realize his scientific thoughts and ideas as Minister of National Economy, Vice-Chancellor and then Chancellor of West Germany (1963—1966).

      In the ten years after the war, West Germany not only rebuilt its shattered economy, but also allowed the world to speak of its economy as the «German miracle». And today, unified Germany consistently occupies one of the leading places in the ranking of the world’s wealthiest democracies, overcoming the difficulties of modern conditions of world economic relations. However, few people today remember the «German miracle» and its author.

      As mentioned above, Germany is one of the most successful countries in the world today. What makes it successful and stable? – The social market economy, which was created by L. Erhard and his team, who had the rare opportunity to try out their strategy day by day for ten years after the war, to test it in practice, and to be convinced of its correctness. The «spiritual father» of this social market economy is rightly considered another bright German scientist Walter Oiken, the founder of an independent branch of modern neoliberalism – ordoliberalism and the «Freiburg School», a disciple of Werner Sombart, no less bright representative of the social-psychological direction of the historical school of Germany.

      It should also be noted that post-war Germany condemned and rethought its past associated with nationalism, «state socialism,» totalitarianism, and fascism, with which it had flirted for almost a century, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, when the theories of «national protectionism» and «state socialism,» revolutionary Marxism, and Bernsteinite social reformism began to emerge on German soil. The threads of all these theories can be connected with the greatest phenomenon of economic thought in Germany in the nineteenth century – the historical school and the legacy of Friedrich СКАЧАТЬ