Compassion and Self-Interest in a Humane Economy

By |2019-07-18T15:24:38-05:00October 14th, 2012|Categories: Alexis de Tocqueville, Bruce Frohnen, Conservatism, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Wilhelm Roepke|Tags: |

The phrase “compassionate conservatism” is of recent origin. While any number of politicians have laid claim to it, one thing is certain: it was born of the worry that being labeled a “conservative,” simply, would cause you to be portrayed as lacking in basic human feelings, particularly for the plight of the poor. Thus “compassionate [...]

Roepke and the Restoration of Property: The Proletarianized Market

By |2019-10-12T00:02:05-05:00October 9th, 2012|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

In a discussion with another famous conserva­tive, Richard Weaver objected to the view that the solution of our problems lies in following in the foot­steps of “our ancestors.” This was not enough, he argued, for we must ask “Which ancestors?” After all, some were wise while others were foolish. In a similar manner we may [...]

Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom: Fifty Years Later

By |2019-07-18T15:52:46-05:00August 27th, 2012|Categories: Books, Economics, Friedrich Hayek, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

Introduction Mark Twain tells us in his book Tom Sawyer that when Tom was punished by having to whitewash his Aunt Polly’s fence, he tried, as was his custom, to shirk the obligation. By making the work look fun, however, he interested the other boys in painting the fence. After arousing their interest, he still [...]

Humanitas and the Limits to the Free Market

By |2014-01-31T11:38:30-06:00August 15th, 2012|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

The essence of humaneness is limits which themselves reflect the hierarchy of enduring values. Humaneness in public affairs is characterized by the recognition and application of proportion and balance to the various needs of mankind. Often, though, decisions are made on the basis of a single principle adhered to regardless of other principles. In this [...]

Economy and Transcendence: Laissez-faire and the Nature of the Market

By |2014-05-30T17:55:39-05:00July 31st, 2012|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Traditional Conservatives and Libertarians, Wilhelm Roepke|

In this paper I argue one cannot be a Christian and libertarian with any pretense of consistency. The argument comes in three major parts: the theological, the logical and the historical. The theological argument identifies and examines the significance of the concept of transcendence underlying three major social encyclicals that deal with economic matters, Rerum [...]

Wilhelm Roepke: Public Good vs. Public Choice

By |2017-07-28T23:04:26-05:00July 19th, 2012|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

With the present cancer of decay infect­ing the body politic, a virulence so debilitating that it induces complacency in the face of not only flagrantly unconstitutional acts of the national government but even of murder, it is an under­statement to say that the “com­mon good” is threat­ened. To deny, in the face of angular reality [...]

The Ideal Economy of Wilhelm Roepke

By |2020-02-28T14:59:49-06:00July 6th, 2012|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

Wilhelm Roepke’s vision of economic and social order while offering us a “third way” forces us to choose between the path of pragmatism and pluralism on the one side, and that of loyalty to ideals that transcend the material and the utilitarian on the other side—between a capitalistic economy of fragmented special interests, technologism, and [...]

The Legacy of Wilhelm Roepke: Essays in Political Economy

By |2016-12-30T14:25:52-06:00June 28th, 2012|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

[This essay serves as the introduction to The Legacy of Wilhelm Roepke: Essays in Political Economy series by Dr. Ancil that we will be publishing on The Imaginative Conservative. The essay was originally published in 1998.] Most folks missed an important date: June 20th, which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the “German economic miracle.” It [...]

The Third Way: Wilhelm Roepke’s Vision of Social Order

By |2021-10-09T15:25:29-05:00May 15th, 2012|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|Tags: |

Wilhelm Roepke endeavored to weave together a new view that would preserve the best of the past and the present; a vision of order which eschewed the extremes of both laissez-faire capitalism and collectivist socialism. He sought an entirely different view, a third way, which combined economic freedom with humane factors sculpted to fit the [...]

Röpke’s Conundrums Over the Natural Family

By |2014-02-03T10:50:26-06:00January 21st, 2012|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Wilhelm Roepke|Tags: , |

Wilhelm Röpke was an unusual free-market economist working in a difficult time. I believe that we should see him, first of all, as a product of 1914, the year which launched what he called “the devastation on so gigantic a scale to which mankind, then having gone mad, dedicated itself.” Mustered to war as a [...]

Economics: “The Not-So-Dismal Science”?

By |2017-07-10T15:12:46-05:00April 14th, 2011|Categories: Economics, Political Economy, Wilhelm Roepke|

The title of this essay takes its name, in part, from a speech that William McGurn delivered recently at Hillsdale College. Mr. McGurn served as the chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush from 2006-2008 and is currently the vice president of News Corporation. In his speech, Mr. McGurn sought to look at the claim [...]

Wilhelm Roepke and the ‘Third Road’

By |2017-06-28T16:04:38-05:00April 5th, 2011|Categories: Books, Wilhelm Roepke|Tags: |

  The enormous span of Wilhelm Roepke’s interests and writings complicates the task of doing justice to his thought within the confines of an essay. Hence, I have elected to focus on just one aspect of his approach and of his philosophy, but one that has proved to be decisive in the practical implementation in [...]

The Economics of Prudence: Roepke, Ricardo, and Free Trade

By |2019-07-16T21:16:36-05:00August 13th, 2010|Categories: Economics, Free Trade, Political Economy, Ralph Ancil, Wilhelm Roepke|

Prolonged, widespread joblessness, collapsing real estate markets, and lower economic growth are a few of the many headline issues about the economy. Recommendations range from more stimulus to denying unemployment benefits but there is little in these discussions that convinces us policymakers know what they are talking about and there is much that is misleading, [...]

Humane Economy: A Book Review

By |2017-06-15T16:14:55-05:00August 11th, 2010|Categories: Books, Economics, Political Economy, Wilhelm Roepke|Tags: |

A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market, By Wilhelm Röpke, Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1998. 200 pp. Wilhelm Röpke (in some texts spelled “Roepke”), a German economist, taught economics in his homeland until the arrival of Hitler’s regime, at which time he emigrated and after some years settled in Switzerland. During [...]

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