Reading the new book by Alexis Karklins-Marchay is undoubtedly one of the most essential of this spring. First the author: each of the publications of this professor of finance and consultant is an event, as he dares to tackle pharaonic projects that he carries out brilliantly each time. For those who missed it, urgently get his rereading of the Balzacian epic (a feat in itself) in Our world according to Balzac (published in 2021 by Ellipses), a monument of political and economic literature of recent years.
The project then: put back in the spotlight ordoliberalism, a school of thought that disappeared from the intellectual radars of the 21st century, opposed to both “laissez faire” liberalism and socialism. Founded in 1930s Germany by academics horrified by Nazism, it served as the bedrock for the reconstruction of Germany and Europe after World War II, before being overshadowed by the triumph of the Keynesian interventionism then Anglo-Saxon Hayekian liberalism. And yet, demonstrates with conviction Alexis Karklins-Marchay, ordoliberalism, in the great toolbox of economic theories, is perhaps the best suited today to meet the challenges that Western economies must face at the start of century. Anglo-Saxon liberalism, despite its unequaled ability to raise the standard of living of countries, is not exempt from reproaches: individualist, obsessed with quick money, consumerist and excessive polluter.
Ordoliberalism, on the other hand, contests the idea of spontaneous social order and promotes a State which organizes competition, arbitrates, accompanies, incites. It does not make profit the primary engine of economic activity. Encourages sobriety, the qualitative more than the quantitative, the quality of life more than growth. Values collective more than individual success. Corrects inequalities with redistributive mechanisms that ultimately guarantee freedoms and social cohesion. What can an ordoliberal economic policy look like today?
To a State brought back to its sovereign functions, which carries out long-term policies, the effectiveness of which is assessed. Has an economic policy that balances public finances over the long term, controls inflation, stabilizes the currency, defends competition and free trade, focuses on education, considers universal income, sets up an ecological tax incentive and taxation of savings geared towards corporate financing, all within a European framework that would look more like an enlarged Switzerland than an enlarged France. The incarnation of a reasonable and balanced program, to oppose to the radical and adventurous projects of the most extreme parties of the political spectrum. Not sure, unfortunately, that the spirit of the times is right…
For a humanist liberalism
By Alexis Karklins-Marchay. City presses, 329 p., €22.
Rating: 4/5