A European Social Model of State-Market Relations*: The Ethics of Competition From a 'Neo-Liberal' Perspective

Zusammenfassung

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This paper portrays "neo-liberalism" in its original conceptual meaning as opposed to the generic term of depreciation which it is commonly used. Fair competition is identified and the denial of all privilege is declared as the major concern of neo-liberals. Ethical merit for competition might, at first sight, be based on only two principles: individual natural rights (equal liberty) and socially desirable outcomes ("unintended altruism"). It was the neo-liberal idea to put fairness-norms or universally applicable rules of just behavior between an unqualified "input-based" ethics and an unqualified "output-based" ethical consequentialism. The enforcement of such rules is a major obligation of the state. Today, the European Union assumes the role of "guardian" of competition. In a certain, but limited sense, neo-liberalism, correctly understood, can be argued to be the one founding "European Social Model". However, beyond the realm of core of common, universalizable interests, competition amongst social-political models seems a preferable option for Europe.

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A European Social Model of State-Market Relations*: The Ethics of Competition From a 'Neo-Liberal' Perspective

1. Introduction: the spectre of neo-liberalism

The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, opens with these dramatic lines:

"A spectre is haunting Europe - the spectre of Communism. All die Powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, Mettemich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies. Where is the party in opposition tiiat has not been decried as Communistic by its opponents in power? Where the Opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of Communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries? Two things result from this fact: I. Communism is already acknowledged by all European Powers to be itself a Power. II. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Communism with a Manifesto of the party itself" (Engels/Marx 1848/2005: 1) 150 years later, the spectre of Communism has been mosdy dispelled. In its place a new spectre is today haunting "old Europe": Neo-liberalism. If one replaces the word "Communism" with "Neo-liberalism", Marx's quote offers a rather accurate description of today's political and intellectual climate. Today, neo-liberalism serves as a "branding reproach" that helps enormously in discrediting political adversaries of all sides. The effect of this branding is that no one today wants to be "neo-liberal" and that there is in fact no 21st century neo-liberal "Manifesto of the party itself."

In this paper, I offer no such Manifesto either, but rather an account of well established historical ordo- or neo-liberal views concerning state-market relations with special emphasis on the role of competition and the ethical value that has been, and still can be, attached to it. I start with a short account of the history of ideas of original neo-liberalism and the perhaps surprisingly active role self-declared neo-liberals attached to the state (parts 2 and 3). Part 4 presents several ethical vindications of open, competitive markets stressed by neo-liberals: equal liberty, procedural justice, reduction of private (and state) power and the unintended, but effective, "altruism" of conseque...

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