Abstract
In this chapter, both French philosopher Louis Rougier and American journalist Walter Lippmann emphasize the need for a renovated, transformed liberalism that can rise to meet the challenges of its time. The fundamental, humane, principles of liberal societies and liberal economic systems are contrasted with the inhumanity of totalitarian systems, their economic inefficiency and their coercion. Participants provide revealing—and divergent—suggestions on what to call this renovated liberalism.
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- 1.
In particular: Walter Lippmann, The Good Society, 1938; Ludwig von Mises, Socialism, 1938; L. Robbins , Economic Planning and International Order, 1938; Louis Rougier , Les Mystiques Economiques, 1938, Librarie de Medicis; Bernard Lavergne, Grandeur et Déclin du Capitalisme, 1938, Payot; Louis Marlio , Le Sort du Capitalisme, 1938, Flammarion; Jacques Rueff , La Crise du Capitalisme, Editions de la Revue Bleue, 1935. (These references all pertain to French editions —Ed.).
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In particular, the very interesting comments of Professor F. von Hayek could not be reconstituted by him from memory.
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An entente refers to agreements between two or more businesses to limit production, limit competition , harmonize prices , or otherwise influence the market. An entente can be licit or illicit depending on its particulars, and the existing legal framework —Ed.
- 4.
This is an allusion to the liberal French “Physiocratic” doctrine. In Les Mystiques économiques, Rougier had criticized the metaphysics of “laissez-faire, laissez-passer ”, and emphasized that the Manchester School was the heir of it, extending its errors. —Ed.
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In France, le code de la route is the set of laws governing the rules of the road. This is an allusion by Rougier to the “Code de la nature” of the liberals of the Physiocratic School, to which the “Code de la route” constitutes an alternative model. —Ed.
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“Les grands classiques”: the classics, not only in the sense of “ancients” but in the sense of the greatest thinkers of economic liberalism —Ed.
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“Currency controls” can also be translated as “foreign exchange controls”.
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This is an allusion to the concept of Friedrich Nietzsche, “wille zur macht”, then often alleged to have inspired fascism and National Socialism. —Ed.
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This is a likely allusion to Julien Benda who developed in the 1930s toward the side of the communists. —Ed.
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“Will” here refers to the mind, not to a testament —Ed.
- 11.
This is a non-textual allusion to the title of a book by Max Stirner , Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (1844, though dated 1845), The Ego and Its Own, translated into French under the title: L’Unique et sa propriété. The German philosopher Max Stirner would inspire a whole anarchist individualist stream of thought, highly active in France —Ed.
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A classic formulation of moral philosophy that often translates Immanuel Kant’s formula, “Reich der Zwecke”. —Ed.
- 13.
This is an allusion to the lecture of Auguste Detoeuf to the “X-Crise” group in 1936, titled “La fin du libéralisme” —Ed.
- 14.
Here the infinitive form is used —Ed.
References
Benda, Julien. 1927. La trahison des clercs. Paris: Grasset.
Detoeuf, Auguste. 1936. La fin du libéralisme. Bulletin du Centre Polytechnicien des Études Économiques 31–32: 37–51.
Lavergne, Bernard. 1938. Grandeur et déclin du capitalisme. Paris: Payot.
Lippmann, Walter. 2005 [1937]. The Good Society. Reprint, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Marlio, Louis. 1938. Le Sort du Capitalisme. Paris: Flammarion.
Mises, Ludwig von. 1951 [1922]. Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Rougier, Louis. 1938. Les Mystiques économiques. Comment l’on passe des démocraties libérales aux Etats totalitaires. Paris: Médicis.
Rueff, Jacques. 1935. La crise du capitalisme. Revue Bleue January: 48–53.
Stirner, Max. 1845. Der Einzige und sein Eigentum, translated into French under the title: L’Unique et sa propriété. Available in English as The Ego and Its Own, ed. David Leopold. 1995. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Reinhoudt, J., Audier, S. (2018). Foreword and Opening Lectures of the Walter Lippmann Colloquium. In: The Walter Lippmann Colloquium. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65885-8_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65885-8_3
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