TY  - CHAP
AB  - The idea of spontaneous orders dating back to Mandeville and elaborated at length by the Austrian School of Economics (Menger, Hayek) is no doubt a major contribution to the understanding of society (Hamowy, 1987). It offers great insights into how human beings solve coordination problems by unintentionally creating mechanisms for social interaction such as the market, money, language, science and law (Hamowy, 1987; Petsoulas, 2000). Such a successful concept must have its limits somewhere, as a concept which explains everything covers nothing. I wish to explore this question by relating the evolution of European integration after the Second World War to the Hayek theory of a spontaneous order. Perhaps Hayek contributed most to the elaboration of Adam Smith's vision of a self-correcting social order that needs little direction and control (Boettke, 1998). Hayek underlined time and again the importance of spontaneous processes with the entailed claim that government must adopt an attitude of humility towards conventions that are not the result of intelligent design, the justification of which in the particular instant may not be recognizable, and that may appear unintelligible and irrational (Hayek, 1960, 1982).
VL  - 8
SN  - 978-0-76231-053-1, 978-1-84950-237-5/1529-2134
DO  - 10.1016/S1529-2134(05)08017-8
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/S1529-2134(05)08017-8
AU  - Lane Jan-Erik
ED  - Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard
PY  - 2004
Y1  - 2004/01/01
TI  - Law and politics: Reflections upon the concept of a spontaneous order and the EU
T2  - The Dynamics of Intervention: Regulation and Redistribution in the Mixed Economy
T3  - Advances in Austrian Economics
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 419
EP  - 428
Y2  - 2024/04/24
ER  -