Über den Wettbewerb als allgemeines Aufdeckungs-, Ordnungs- und Erkundungsverfahren

The article investigates whether Hayek’s concept of „competition as a discovery procedure“ can be generalized to apply not only to the competitive market process, but also to competition in other social spheres. To this purpose, three distinct effects of competition are distinguished. It is shown that Hayek, in his „Competition as a Discovery Procedure“, emphasizes the disclosure effect and the ordering effect of competition, while he abstracts from the exploration effect of competition. On the basis of these different effects of competition, it is highlighted how competitive processes in science, in politics and in innovative user groups differ from competition in markets. Given the differences between the effects of competition stressed by Hayek and the actual effects of competition outside the markets for goods and productive factors, the generalization of his „competition as a discovery principle“ appears problematic.