Abstract
The social thought which emerges from Francesco Forte’s economic writings proves to be mainly inspired by methodological individualism, though interpreted through a peculiar “personalistic” key. We will analyze the peculiar traits of his thought and the specific contribution that Forte gave to the understanding of a specific economic theory based on the doctrine of “Ordoliberalism” or the “Freiburg School.” In our work, we will show how Forte proposes an interpretation of that doctrine, according to two of his main points of reference in economic and philosophical thought: Luigi Einaudi and Antonio Rosmini Serbati. Finally, we will present an important aspect of Forte’s work: his institutional analysis in the light of the particular civil philosophy expressed by Christian social teaching.
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Notes
Because of this constellation, which interprets the Ordoliberal school as inseparable, on the one hand, from the central intellectual instances of German “protestant” philosophy and, on the other, from the impossibility of deriving any totalitarian derivation directly either from Kant or from Hegel, it seems a little forced when Forte affirms that the Kantian imperative “is well-suited to a dangerous intolerance against those who exercise types of behavior which differ from the norm, and is the precursor of the ethical State which believes itself to be acting in accordance with the truth in so doing” (Forte 2012b, p. 176).
The appropriate Rosminian passages are quoted in Forte 2012b, p. 179–180.
Quoted in Forte 2012b, p. 181.
“[I]t is clear that all human wisdom in government can only be based on the imitation of the wisdom of the One who from heaven rules the entire universe” (Rosmini 1994a, p. 75).
“The agonizing question is: up to what point have the principles of social security, full employment and equality of fortunes and incomes produced beneficial results for the community? Have we already passed the critical point, forgetting the old values of individual responsibility, the keeping of the commitments one has made, the incentive to rise in the hierarchy of the economic society?” (Einaudi 1954, p. XXX).
“Have we not turned back too, abandoning the type of society based on the freely negotiated contract between parties in favor of the type of society based on the regulations prescribed by laws, thus inverting the characteristic for which in the nineteenth century the ‘contract’ gradually replaced the ‘Regulation’?” (Einaudi 1954, p. XXX).
There are not lacking, in this regard, authors that have shown possible meeting points between Ordoliberal epistemology and Popperian antihistoricism (Antiseri 2005).
“[…] Is it not so urgent to get rid of the barriers that currently limit the formation of private savings: withdrawal tax for the reconstruction of the capital shares, difficulties in disposing of capital invested abroad, lack of respect to the invariance of the gold monetary standard? In the competition among the various countries of the world, the palm of victory seems to await those which demonstrate a greater, if not complete, respect for the traditional rules of economic conduct” (Einaudi 1954, p. XXXI); “A stable currency means safety for producers and customers; it means defense of savings and classes politically weaker of the country; in synthesis, it means economic safety, without which everything that you wanted to build threaten to be built on sand“ (Vanoni 1956, Vol. II, p. 1065).
Forte refers explicitly to that definition in Forte 2012b, p. 181.
For the aspect of mutual assistance as a dimension of civil society in Rosmini cf. Hoevel 2013, p. 219–220.
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Felice, F., Krienke, M. Understanding Social Market Economy, Francesco Forte and His Interpretation. Int Adv Econ Res 23, 21–37 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-016-9622-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11294-016-9622-8