For Röpke, the market economy needs an extra-economic sociological framework to be defensible
Evidence
Wilhelm Röpke had launched broadsides against classical economic liberalism since the early 1940s. He claimed that classical writers had ignored the fact “that the market economy constitutes a narrow sector of societal life only.” Although the market economy was “simply [an] indispensable configuration” in the economic sphere, where it would manifest itself in an “unadulterated and genuine” way, on its own, it would be dangerous, if not indefensible, because for all intents and purposes it would reduce humans to an unnatural existence: “The market economy thus requires a firm framework, which we shall call in short an anthropological-sociological frame” (Röpke 1946, 82f.). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 507
Categorization
- DEFINE: Introduces the ordoliberal concept of the ‘anthropological-sociological frame’ as the necessary non-market context for a defensible market economy.
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s prior work on trees-as-infrastructure (the market needs an infrastructural frame, like grafting) and to Polanyi’s embeddedness critique of markets. — connects to: Röpke’s circle required deliberate cultural regulation alongside markets — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 293; Röpke and Rüstow crossed disciplinary lines to supply market economies with sociocultural foundations — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 506; Market economies require deliberate political construction, not natural emergence — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection: How Data Is…, 364 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Röpke blamed failed industrialization on missing liberal cultural traditions
#expands(0.82) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1286 - Market economies require deliberate political construction, not natural emergence
#corroborates(0.80) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 364 - Neoliberalism required culturally transforming non-capitalist societies to extend markets
#expands(0.75) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 88