Dr. Johannes Antonius Veraart: A Catholic Economist on Rerum Novarum

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to investigate the impact of the encyclical Rerum novarum on economics and industrial organization in the Netherlands. To determine this impact the career and scholarly writings of professor Dr. Johannes Antonius Veraart (1886–1955) is investigated. He was a productive and assertive catholic economist committed to parliamentary democracy in the first half of the twentieth century. Veraart emphasized a distinction between a realist and an ethical approach in his publications about economics. He adopted this distinction from the German economist Adolph Wagner (1835–1917) and the Austrian economist Eugen Philippovich (1858–1917). During the Second World War he served as an economic advisor to the cabinet-in-exile Gerbrandy. In 1944 prime minister Pieter Gerbrandy dismissed him for having criticized the government about post war democracy. Although Veraart and his ideas have almost been neglected in Dutch economics once the literature described him as the auctor intellectualis of the Dutch variant of corporatism or industrial organization regulating the relations between labour, capital and state. In his writings and talks about corporatism he referred extensively to the encyclicals Rerum novarum and Quadragesimo anno. Both documents breathed the philosophy of Thomism. As a student Veraart became familiar with this philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. The essay discusses respectively his educational and political background, his economic approach and ethics, his interpretation of Rerum novarum, and his political influence. Finally, the relevance of this encyclical in the 21st century is briefly considered. For the investigation literature about the political history of Dutch Catholicism was studied together with documents made accessible by the Veraart Collection at the National Archive in The Hague.

Science does not prescribe the direction of social phenomena, but social phenomena prescribe the directions of science. Every time again it is the main sin of Economics to have forgotten this Aristotelian-Thomist wisdom.

J.A. Veraart, public lecture, 8 January 1940, 3.

The author accepts sole responsibility for statements of fact and opinions expressed in this essay.

Appendix 1: Short Timeline Professional Career Veraart

1904–1908:

Student of Law, University of Amsterdam

1910:

Doctoral dissertation Arbeidsloon (Ph.D.)

1919–1940:

Member Provincial Council Zuid Holland

1919–1955:

Professor of Economics, University of Delft

1925:

Member of Roman Catholic State Party (Dutch abbreviation RKSP)

1925–1929:

Member Second Chamber of Parliament representing the RKSP

1932:

Ended membership of RKSP because of the board’s rejection of proposals to restrain the consequences of the economic crisis

1933:

Established Catholic Democratic Association (Dutch abbreviation KDB)

1939:

Again member of RKSP

1939–1940:

Appointed Rector Magnificus University of Delft

1940–1944:

Advisor economic policy to cabinet Gerbrandy in London

1942:

Personal economic advisor of prime minister Gerbrandy

1944:

Dismissed by cabinet Gerbrandy

1950–1955:

Appointed crown member of the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands

Source: Parlement en Politiek, Mr. J.A. Veraart, www.parlement.com.