IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revaec/v35y2022i4d10.1007_s11138-020-00532-7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Anti-democratic revolutionaries or democratic reformers? A review essay of Janek Wasserman’s The Marginal Revolutionaries: How Austrian Economists Fought the War of Ideas

Author

Listed:
  • Stefan Kolev

    (University of Applied Sciences Zwickau
    Wilhelm Röpke Institute)

Abstract

This paper provides a critical reading of Janek Wasserman’s The Marginal Revolutionaries: How Austrian Economists Fought the War of Ideas. Wasserman depicts the evolution of the Austrian School from the 1860s until today, a particularly illuminating narrative for the readers of this journal. The breadth of portrayed economists, their cultural embeddedness in Austrian and US contexts, and the complexity of configurations across the school’s generations create a rich and readable story. The last third of the book suffers from allegations about the ideological agenda and institutional power of the Austrian economists which sometimes lack sufficient substantiation. The paper indicates how both in their theorizing and in their political activities, the Austrian economists can be seen as reformers instead of revolutionaries, and as constitutionalists instead of anti-democrats. Despite these disagreements, Wasserman’s portrayals evoke largely fair and challenging impulses both to scholars working in the Austrian research program and to those interested in the Austrian School’s long history, regardless of one’s ideological positions.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Kolev, 2022. "Anti-democratic revolutionaries or democratic reformers? A review essay of Janek Wasserman’s The Marginal Revolutionaries: How Austrian Economists Fought the War of Ideas," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 531-546, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:35:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s11138-020-00532-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-020-00532-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11138-020-00532-7
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11138-020-00532-7?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lewis E. Hill & Charles E. Butler & Stephen A. Lorenzen, 1977. "Inflation and the Destruction of Democracy: The Case of the Weimar Republic," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 299-313, June.
    2. Jonathan Perraton, 2007. "Evaluating Marxian contributions to development economics," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 27-46.
    3. Dekker,Erwin, 2019. "The Viennese Students of Civilization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107565661, January.
    4. Viktor Vanberg, 2011. "Liberal constitutionalism, constitutional liberalism and democracy," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 1-20, March.
    5. Janek Wasserman, 2020. "Science lost, science found in the post WWII Austrian economics movement: The case of Emil Kauder," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 107-120, March.
    6. Stefan Kolev, 2019. "The puzzles of a triumvir: Friedrich von Wieser as political economist and sociologist," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(5), pages 942-972, September.
    7. Caldwell, Bruce & Montes, Leonidas, 2015. "Friedrich Hayek and his visits to Chile," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 63318, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Blyth, Mark, 2013. "Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199828302, Decembrie.
    9. Hansjörg Klausinger, 2015. "Hans Mayer, Last Knight of the Austrian School, Vienna Branch," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 47(2), pages 271-305, June.
    10. Bruce Caldwell & Leonidas Montes, 2015. "Friedrich Hayek and his visits to Chile," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 28(3), pages 261-309, September.
    11. Wicker, Elmus R, 1986. "Terminating Hyperinflation in the Dismembered Habsburg Monarchy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(3), pages 350-364, June.
    12. Stefan Kolev, 2020. "Besieged by the left and the right: The order of liberal globalism," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 521-533, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ekkehard A. Köhler & Daniel Nientiedt, 2023. "Was Walter Eucken a proponent of authoritarian liberalism?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 195(3), pages 363-376, June.
    2. Nicolas Brisset & Raphaël Fèvre, 2019. "Peregrinations of an Economist: Perroux's Grand Tour of Fascist Europe," GREDEG Working Papers 2019-11, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    3. Andrew Farrant, 2019. "What Should (Knightian) Economists Do? James M. Buchanan's 1980 Visit to Chile," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(3), pages 691-714, January.
    4. Jason Oakes, 2016. "Rent-seeking and the tragedy of the commons: two approaches to problems of collective action in biology and economics," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 137-151, July.
    5. Andrew Farrant & Vlad Tarko, 2019. "James M. Buchanan’s 1981 visit to Chile: Knightian democrat or defender of the ‘Devil’s fix’?," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 32(1), pages 1-20, March.
    6. Kolev, Stefan, 2021. "When liberty presupposes order: F. A. Hayek's learning ordoliberalism," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 21/2, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    7. Steininger, Lea & Hesse, Casimir, 2024. "Buying into new ideas: The ECB’s evolving justification of unlimited liquidity," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 357, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    8. Achim Truger, 2015. "Implementing the golden rule for public investment in Europe," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 138, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    9. Jörg Bibow, 2018. "How Germany’s anti-Keynesianism has brought Europe to its knees," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5), pages 569-588, September.
    10. Reto Bürgisser & Donato Di Carlo, 2023. "Blessing or Curse? The Rise of Tourism‐Led Growth in Europe's Southern Periphery," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 236-258, January.
    11. Karsten Kohler & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2022. "Growing differently? Financial cycles, austerity, and competitiveness in growth models since the Global Financial Crisis," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 1314-1341, July.
    12. Mark Setterfield, 2024. "Managing the Discontent of the Losers Redux: A Future of Authoritarian Neoliberalism or Social Capitalism?," Working Papers 2401, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    13. Fraccaroli, Nicolò & Giovannini, Alessandro & Jamet, Jean-François & Persson, Eric, 2022. "Ideology and monetary policy. The role of political parties’ stances in the European Central Bank’s parliamentary hearings," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    14. Dimitris Mavridis & Pálma Mosberger, 2017. "Income Inequality and Incentives. The Quasi-Natural Experiment of Hungary 1914-2008," Working Papers halshs-02797438, HAL.
    15. Ivo Arnold, 2021. "An Interest Stabilisation Mechanism to Unburden the ECB," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 56(5), pages 274-277, September.
    16. Cohen, Joseph N & Linton, April, 2010. "The historical relationship between inflation and political rebellion, and what it might teach us about neoliberalism," MPRA Paper 22522, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Costa Cabral, Nazare, 2022. "The European Monetary Integration Trap: incomplete sovereignty and the State-mimicking method," MPRA Paper 115245, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Clément Fontan & François Claveau & Peter Dietsch, 2016. "Central banking and inequalities," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 15(4), pages 319-357, November.
    19. Samuel Brazys & Aidan Regan, 2016. "These Little PIIGS Went to Market: Enterprise Policy and Divergent Recovery in European Periphery," Working Papers 201517, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.
    20. Sparke, Matthew, 2017. "Austerity and the embodiment of neoliberalism as ill-health: Towards a theory of biological sub-citizenship," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 287-295.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Austrian school; Central European history; Neoliberalism; Ideas and institutions; Role of economists;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • B13 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Neoclassical through 1925 (Austrian, Marshallian, Walrasian, Wicksellian)
    • B25 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School
    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:35:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s11138-020-00532-7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.