Better Dead Than Red: Wilhelm Röpke, a Neoliberal Anti-Communist on All Fronts

Abstract

Research on the history of neoliberal thought rarely addresses the issue of anti-communism. Most studies concentrate on the contours of neoliberal economic thinking and its evolution since the 1930s, identifying several stages of development: the role of the Mont Pèlerin Society, the denunciation of Keynesianism and the welfare state, the proliferation of think tanks, and the impact of Reagan and Thatcher. Yet neoliberalism emerges out of this history as a global vision, providing a normative reading of the social and political world beyond the mere intricacies of economic theory. Its analysis cannot be dissociated from a more general history of ideas. Consequently, the investigation of its anti-communist dimension is not secondary, but central. This chapter examines this wider interpretation through a case study on the career of Wilhelm Röpke (1899–1966), one of the pioneers of neoliberal thought. Although less well known than Friedrich von Hayek, Röpke, exiled after 1933, was equally prominent in the early years, and his work provides an ideal vantage point through which to consider the linkage between neoliberalism and anti-communism.¹