Law and Competition in Twentieth-Century Europe
... However, the common denominator of this area, both from the legal and economic standpoint, was the presence of socialist systems, characterised by a highly centralised role of the State both concerning the area of legislative production and having regard to economic planning. Therefore, by considering the EU's social market economy -and consequently competition law -as a model to be transplanted in this area according to the legal transplants theory, 22 it can be seen as consequential a certain difficulty for these systems in interiorising the European market model, which anyway constitutes an essential part of the acquis communautaire, therefore essential to join the Union. 23 Indeed, as philosophy of law teaches, 24 -does not automatically derive the effectiveness of these provisions. ...
The European Union has guaranteed peace and economic advancement for a long period since its creation. Nevertheless, the European project – in particular in 2024, year in which the European Parliament and the European Commission will be renewed – appears at the crossroad, threatened by the complex global geopolitical situation, the emergence of strong industrial players, the rise of populist parties, and an economic downturn which lowered the ‘social safety net’ which has always characterised the EU area. The correlation between the ‘health’ of the common market and its implications on the social and political level, with particular reference to democracy and the rule of law, have not been at the forefront of the political and legal debate and, especially, solutions have not been proposed in a satisfactory and effective manner. This paper aims at analysing the correlation between the state of the European market and its impact on democracy and the rule of law through the lens of competition law, in order to establish a link between the competitiveness of the European market and better social conditions for European citizens. This analysis will follow as lodestar the programmatic description of the ‘social market economy’ contained in Article 3, paragraph 3, of the Treaty on the European Union. The paper sustains that exactly a revamped version of the social market economy model – with its Ordoliberal roots – represents the key in order to boost the European economy and to restore a proper level of social protection in the European Union, being this a driver also towards a healthily democratic society. Furthermore, only by sticking to the core values permeating its market and its society, the EU could fight in the Global scenario, cause its model, differently from others, still represents the most mature sublimation of concepts such as democracy, rule of law, social wellness and inclusion. Therefore, the EU can regain its propulsive and attractive force – especially in light of the awaited expansion in the Western Balkans region – only by turning back to the Treaties and the political roots which were at the basis of the EU project, with particular reference to a healthy and workable competition in the market. Only this approach is deemed to provide the EU with the essential tools in order to find a proper role in the international scenario in light of challenges such as digitalisation (and the advent of AI), the green transition, and the complex political scenario. This paper, in conclusion, will therefore provide a framework which explains how the European competitive market model is to be regarded as a ‘guardian’ of values such as democracy and the rule of law and how the EU can keep its leadership in the promotion and maintenance of these values through a renewed version of the ‘social market economy’ concept.
... · Competition brings dynamism, so it ensures that businesses are under constant pressure to deliver the best possible goods and services to customers at the best possible prices. In this way it affects the improvement of the allocation of production factors and the growth of the welfare of the society (Gerber, D., 2001). ...
... Tevékenységét és döntéseit csak a rendes bíróságok vizsgálhatják felül, a végrehajtó hatalom számára nem hagyott helyet a modell (Gerber 2001: 254). A független monopóliumhivatalt a német modern jogállam sine qua non-jának tekintették, ugyanolyan nélkülözhetetlennek, mint a legfelsőbb bíróságot (Gerber 2001). 12 Ma mind az Európai Bizottság, mind a nemzeti versenyhatóságok "bíróságszerű" feladatokat látnak el (Maher 2000, Wright 2009), mivel védik a vállalkozások jogi helyzetét, valamint a polgárok gazdasági tevékenységhez és a szabad piaci választáshoz való jogát. ...
... Zur gleichen Zeit ist es gerade die Souveränität des Gesetzes, die es zu einer potenziellen Quelle von Effizienzsteigerungen macht, wenn dieses entsprechend verwendet wird, um künstliche Stabilität zu schaffen. (Gerber 1994(Gerber , 1998Grossekettler 1996;Nörr 1996;Bonefeld 2012;Burgin 2012 (Hayek 1944, S. 43). Die Hayek'sche und ordoliberale Verteidigung des Wettbewerbs waren mindestens genauso normativ wie ökonomisch gedacht und oft ausschließlich normativ (Hayek 1944, S. 38;Gerber 1994, S. 36). ...
Der in zweiter Auflage vorliegende Band bietet einen aktuellen Überblick über die Vielzahl neuerer sozialwissenschaftlicher Forschungen zur Bedeutung, Funktion und Theorie von Dispositiven in und für die Ökonomie. Denn die Ökonomie ist „instrumentiert“ – Organisationen und Märkte sind durchzogen und ausgestattet mit Objekten, Materialitäten, Technologien, Diskursen und Subjektivierungsweisen, deren spezifische Verknüpfungen die Ökonomie hervorbringen.
Für die Analyse der Dispositive muss „Ökonomie“ daher notwendig transdisziplinär gefasst werden, gerade um die bisher weitgehende Ausblendung von Dispositiven in der Analyse von Märkten und Organisationen zu überwinden und diese durch neuartige theoretische aber auch vielfältige methodologische Zugänge zu erschließen. Diese Erschließung der materiellen und immateriellen Ausstattung der Ökonomie erfolgt nun nicht nur transdisziplinär, sondern auch international. Der Band präsentiert Beiträge von Forschenden aus Deutschland, Frankreich, Großbritannien und der Schweiz. Die durchgesehene und korrigierte Neuauflage wurde um eine Bibliographie neuerer Arbeiten ergänzt.
... Historians of postwar German economic reconstruction treat it as a source of some intellectual guidance for the architects of the "social market economy," of which it formed an integral element (Abelshauser, 2004;Haley, 2001;Murach-Brand, 2004;Nicholls, 1994;Streeck, 1997Streeck, , 2010. Students of European competition law continue to debate its ideas and the degree to which they have influenced the competition enforcement regime in the European Union (Akman, 2012;Gerber, 2001;Quack & Djelic, 2005). During the Eurozone debt crisis following the Great Recession, ordoliberalism again aroused furor when many blamed Germany's resistance to easing the terms of restructuring Southern European debt on its ordoliberal heritage. ...
The recent publication of Kenneth Dyson's book Conservative Liberalism, Liberalism, Ordo-Liberalism, and the State offers an occasion to reconsider the body of ideas known as ordoliberalism. The books reviewed here represent much of the most recent scholarship in English on the subject. In this essay, I undertake two tasks: first, to clarify what the term properly refers to and in particular how it is related to "neoliberalism," and, second, to consider its influence on postwar German policies and institutions. I argue that much of the recent discussion of ordoliberalism and neoliberalism overlooks important differences between early ordoliberal thinking and the ideas associated with neoliberalism. Over time, as neoliberalism evolved and particularly as it became an ideological justification for policies and institutions justifying the accumulation of concentrated market power, these differences have become wider even as they have been obscured by misreadings of ordoliberalism. A better understanding of ordoliberalism can also provide insights relevant to the contemporary debates about the crisis of liberal democracy and capitalism. Is it in fact a "third way" for ordering an economy, an alternative to neoliberalism and socialism?
... This strong opposition of concentrated power found its public expression in the antitrust prosecutions of Theodore Roosevelt and both of those quotes serve well to symbolize the difference at that point in time between the US and Europe where trade cartels were still seen as a way of life and sometimes even used by politicians. 17 Gerber even said that to some extent this difference can still be seen in EU competition law enforcement today. 18 Other ways to categorize a foundational difference between US and EU law is per-se prohibition as opposed to the abuse principle or categorical and criminalization as opposed to administrative policy where a fine is given. ...
The stability and long-term survival of EU institutions should not be taken for granted, not even for a successful institution such as DG Competition. This point was underlined by the on-going crisis. Thus, it makes sense to evaluate alternative concepts of governance and policy. To this end, this paper analyses in how far the concept and prospects of an ECO are still viable today. Through critical examination of relevant literature, the past developments in this regard are analysed. Furthermore, a model of aspects that are important for competition law enforcement is used to draw a comprehensive picture of aspects important for competition law enforcement and its institutions, such as goals, independence, competition economics, procedural issues, caseload and structure. Finally a normative evaluation of a prospective independent agency is done, which shows a possible solution for an independent European Cartel Office. This institution would be quite similar to DG Competition in some aspects, but potentially quite different, especially with regard to procedure.
... The post-1945 intellectual landscape was marked by the rise of ordoliberalism, an economic school of thought, which was both a reorientation of economic thinking after the world economic crisis, and a reaction against national-socialism, which combined totalitarism, capitalism and economic dirigism (Gerber, 1998;Nicholls, 1994). The ordoliberals, such as Walter Eucken, Franz Böhm or Wilhelm Röpcke, promoted a new role for state authorities as guardian of all individual and collective freedoms, both in the political realm (freedom of speech, etc.) and in the economic arena (freedom of choice for consumers, freedom of small companies to be protected from big corporations, etc.). ...
... Come può vedersi anche solo a partire da tale prima esposizione, il fulcro della concettualizzazione dell'economia sociale di mercato riposa sulla centralità categoretica dell'Ordnungspolitik, termine anch'esso difficilmente traducibile 269 , ma comunque destinato a declinarsi in chiave giuridica sotto forma di stabilità 270 (infra, § 2.3). Un ordinamento giuridico informato al concetto dell'economia sociale di mercato, dunque, si atteggia secondo i suoi stessi sostenitori ad "irenische Formel" 271 , cioè ad un assetto fondamentalmente privo dell'orizzonte del conflitto 272 , in cui il diritto svolge una funzione mitigatrice 273 , protettiva e allo stesso tempo proiettiva nei confronti del mercato, ben compendiata nella formula "protecting Prometheus" 274 . ...
Konieczność przeciwdziałania postępującej degradacji środowiska naturalnego stała się jednym z priorytetów Unii Europejskiej. Wysiłki w tym kierunku są realizowane przez w ramach zestawu polityk i inicjatyw prawodawczych łącznie określanych jako Zielony Ład. Docelowo Europejska gospodarka ma stać się bezemisyjna oraz uniezależnić się od paliw kopalnych. Wymaga to opracowania i wdrożenia całego szeregu zielonych technologii, które często są jeszcze eksperymentalne lub kosztowne, stąd konieczne staje się zaangażowanie pomocy państwa. W tym kontekście celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie relacji między Traktatowymi imperatywami wspierania ochrony środowiska i utrzymania konkurencyjności gospodarki europejskiej. Prowadzona analiza ma za zadanie udowodnić hipotezę artykułu, że istniejący interpretacyjny standard dotyczący oceny wpływu środka pomocowego na handel i konkurencje otwiera drogę do nadużyć, gdzie państwa mogą tworzyć niektórym przedsiębiorstwom nieuczciwą przewagę konkurencyjną wykorzystując uzasadnienie konieczności ochrony środowiska jako carte blanche dla subsydiowania.
Competition regulation has an important role in preserving the dynamism of the market, fostering innovation, and safeguarding consumer welfare. The provision in question forbids agreements that have both anti-competitive and criminal characteristics. These agreements are characterised by intentional and cooperative actions to distort market dynamics, decrease competition, and negatively impact consumer welfare. We can categorize the agreements into horizontal and vertical categories. Horizontal agreements encompass several forms of collusive tactics among competitors, such as price-fixing, market division, output restriction, bid manipulation, exclusive distribution, and customer allocation. Vertical agreements such as resale price maintenance, exclusive distribution, and bundling are generally deemed legitimate. However, if these agreements have characteristics that impede competition, they may be considered unconstitutional. The European Union enforces compliance with competition law through rigorous investigations and the imposition of more stringent restrictions. Many enforcement entities, including the European Commission and national competition authorities, share this task. To effectively safeguard and uphold competition rules, it is critical to understand these agreements’ intrinsic traits, expressions, and outcomes. Competitive markets allow for precise pricing determination based on the interaction between supply and demand. This enables customers to make decisions according to their own preferences.
Faced with the challenges posed by gatekeepers, EU competition law is undergoing a period of significant change. I attempt to show in this article that one can understand this change as a shift in the relationship between EU competition law and fundamental rights. More precisely, I show that the initial relationship between these two factors has been operational, in the sense that fundamental rights have been relied upon to operationalize the substance of competition law. In the operational relationship, the right to a fair trial has been deployed by the European Commission to create and expand its quasi-judicial arm. This long-standing operational relationship has recently evolved into an informative one, where the rights to privacy and data protection have informed the European Commission’s merger assessments involving gatekeepers. Finally, I argue that, in light of the Meta/Facebook case and recent EU legislation, the relationship between EU competition law and fundamental rights can be called foundational. Indeed, it appears that both the CJEU and EU legislators intend to inject fundamental rights into the foundations of EU competition law. I also highlight how the principle of transparency has played an important role in these developments as an enabler and magnifier. These changes are significant and will impact the work of competition authorities, data protection authorities and other public bodies in the EU.
As in other industrialized countries, cartelization was widespread in France after the 1870s. Cartels, and the public policy toward them, were frequently addressed in the public debate. This article deals with the stance taken by French economists on this subject until the Great Depression. Although they were divided into several groups that were in sharp disagreement on most scientific and policy issues, French economists were almost united in their lack of support for anticartel policy. The liberal economists' opposition stemmed from their general hostility to government intervention. Unlike in the English-speaking world, where many economists otherwise critical of government gradually became supportive of antitrust after mounting evidence had revealed the scope of certain kinds of exclusionary behavior, the French liberal economists remained constant in their opposition. The more reform-minded university professors, as well as the sociologists- economists of the Durkheimian school, were unenthusiastic about policies meant to safeguard competition because they viewed “excessive” market competition as destabilizing and wasteful. Finally, the most prominent experts in industrial economics, who were employed by large companies or professional organizations, also advocated a hands-off approach, in accordance with their employers' preferences.
Thirty years of modern competition law systems in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) invite reflection on the lessons the region can offer to the world. This paper focuses on enforcing the prohibition of anticompetitive agreements, in particular on collusion involving trade associations. Taking the legacy of the socialist economy as a contextual factor, we will show that trade associations may act as a vehicle for perpetuating doing business the old way, i.e. according to the cooperation (rather than competitive) paradigm. Our study is useful to understand what values other than just protection of competition play a role in enforcing competition law today. The paper analyzes the enforcement of competition law in five EU Member States in the region: the Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, in the period from 2010 to 2020. The paper’s primary research material consists of decisions of national competition authorities and their annual reports.
The European Union (EU) and its forerunner, the European Economic Community (EEC), have been economically organised around a market-oriented philosophy, which has been fed by a constant debate between two opposite poles: indicative planning and competition. This chapter will revisit the history of internal European economic policies, notably in the monetary, industrial and competition realms, by demonstrating that European institutions have usually carried on thanks to successive compromises between planning and competition and that, despite the latter’s rise since the 1990s, the contest is not yet over, especially since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.
More generally, the debate between planning and competition echoes the long-term controversy between the promoters of free trade and those who are willing to bend free-market rules.
Monopoly rights in our legal system is one of the new issues that there is no comprehensive bill to understand all its dimensions and aspects, and the existing laws do not have the required efficiency due to its dispersion. To solve this problem, a new law entitled the “General Policies of Article 44” and “Amendment of the Fourth Development Plan and the implementation of the general policies of Article 44 of the Constitution” were adopted that caused economic opportunities for the development of competitive environment and to cancel. state monopolies and at the same time it resulted in serious problems, as far as, despite the reduction in government ownership, desired results have not been achieved. Therefore, in this article have been tried to analyze the following matters in the legal lexicon: History, definitions, origins, resource and the basis of applying the anti-monopoly rules application, civil responsibility, law enforcement and finally the losses incurred to persons in violation of anti-monopoly laws in Iranian regulations. With respect to analysis positive regulations, we can concluded that the main basis for competition law and monopoly is public order because it results in achieving justice in society and public interest, And ‘Principle of no Harm’ can be invoked only when we are certain about the losses. About law enforcement of monopolies, unfortunately, due to the vagueness and deficiency of the Iran’s law, legislatives regarding the validity of the contract. Therefore, in many cases there are no appropriate legal enforcement and specific legal order. In other word, relative deficit of executive mechanisms in the regulations has made it difficult to control monopolies. In association with the basis of compensation in violation of anti monopoy and competion law, persons aggrieved by monopoly and violation of competition law based on ‘Principle of no Harm’ and civil liability provisions (especially article 1 of the law of Civil Liability) and special conditions of this regulations, have the right to claim damages.
Economic policy determines the intensity of competition in markets. This gives incumbents the incentive to use their financial resources to influence policymaking in order to restrict competition and maintain or increase economic profits. Public authorities should promote the use of profits rather in welfare-enhancing or neutral ways. Is competition law an adequate tool to promote this goal? This paper aims to ground the discussion on legal administrability considerations. The focus is therefore on whether we can design legal standards and identify evidence that courts can use to assess the tradeoffs between static efficiency, political influence of large corporations, and innovation. This paper argues that if political considerations are to be taken into account in antitrust analysis, these should be made explicit and the evidence at hand in each case should be considered, in order to avoid enforcement guided by assumptions—such as that increases in market concentration always lead to risks in terms of political influence—that can otherwise be revised on a case-by-case basis.
The recent ‘big tech and antitrust' discourse in the U.S. and abroad is primarily dominated by references to Louis D. Brandeis and the so-called New Brandeis move- ment, also known as ‘hipster antitrust.' While it is laudable that many researchers - and politicians - acknowledge and recognize the work of Brandeis, it is also a missed opportunity to refer to him en passant and not investigate his socio-political philos- ophy in more depth. This paper attempts to fill this gap in the academic literature and evaluate Brandeis' achievements and (theoretical) shortcomings from a history of economic and legal thought perspective. It does so by taking a closer look at the life and work of Brandeis and analyzing his socio-economic and legal philosophy. Furthermore, the paper addresses the question of which lessons can be drawn from his work and how it could inspire today's political discourse(s).
Im Herbst 2008 erfuhr das Modell der politischen Ökonomie, welches als „Neoliberalismus” bekannt ist, eine historische Erschütterung, welche damals als ein Wendepunkt für die Wirtschaftspolitik angesehen wurde. Konfrontiert mit dem weitreichenden Versagen der Investmentbanken und Versicherungskonzerne, nutzten viele westliche Regierungen in ausnehmenden Maße ihre Exekutivmacht, um die Finanzsysteme mit Krediten, Eigenkapital und Garantien zu stabilisieren, die einem Gegenwert von Billionen von Dollar entsprachen.
Competition is deeply built into the structures of modern life. It can improve policies, products and services, but is also seen as a divisive burden that pits people against one another. This book seeks to go beyond such caricatures by advancing a new thesis about how competition came to shape our society. Jonathan Hearn argues that competition was 'domesticated', harnessed and institutionalised across a range of institutional spheres in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Responding to crises in traditional forms of authority (hereditary, religious), the formalisation of competition in the economy, politics, and diverse new forms of knowledge creation provided a new mode for legitimating distributions of power in the emerging liberal societies. This insightful study aims to improve our ability to think critically about competition, by better understanding its integral role, for good and ill, in how liberal forms of society work.
Nach der liberalen Gewerbe- und Entflechtungspolitik des US-amerikanischen Besatzungsregimes nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg etablierte das Gesetz gegen Wettbewerbsbeschränkungen von 1957 endgültig eine am Leitbild des funktionsfähigen Wettbewerbs orientierte Rechtsordnung für die Märkte des Gewerbes in der BRD. Zur ursprünglichen Kartell- und Missbrauchsaufsicht sowie zu den vergaberechtlichen Vorschriften trat in den 1970er Jahren als weiteres Feld der Ordnungspolitik die Fusionskontrolle. In der Folgezeit griff das Gesetz durch Novellierungen immer wieder neue wettbewerbsrelevante Tatbestände auf und präzisierte alte, erleichterte aber auch Kooperationen zwischen Unternehmen, wenn verbraucherfreundliche Ergebnisse zu erwarten waren. Weitgehend unbestritten waren die Eingriffe der regionalen Strukturpolitik in die gewerblichen Märkte, zunehmend akzeptiert die der sektoralen. So wie sich Unternehmen und Märkte fortlaufend veränderten, so auch die wettbewerbsrechtlichen Regeln. Anfangs übte die BRD mit ihrer vergleichsweise ausgeprägten Wettbewerbskultur Einfluss auf die Entwicklung einer gemeinschaftlichen Wettbewerbsordnung aus, so dass sich beide Ordnungen fast synchron entwickelten. Je stärker sich aber eine eigenständige EG/EU-Wettbewerbspolitik ausprägte – der Wettbewerb war immerhin der zentrale Modus für das gesamte Integrationsprojekt –, umso mehr mussten sich die mitgliedstaatlichen Wettbewerbspolitiken an ihr orientieren. Es entstand eine gemeinschaftliche Wettbewerbsordnung, die die mitgliedstaatlichen Ordnungen überwölbte und miteinander verklammerte. Ungeklärt blieb die Frage, inwieweit der EWG-Vertrag den Rahmen für einen Ordnungs- bzw. Institutionenwettbewerb zwischen den Mitgliedstaaten schuf und inwieweit er auf Harmonisierung angelegt war.
The European Union has established itself as a leading text that provides readers from all disciplines with a sound understanding of the economics and policies of the EU. Its wealth of information, detail and analysis has ensured that previous editions have been read by a generation of students, researchers and policy makers. It covers all major EU policy areas as well as theories of economic integration, the theory of economic and monetary union (EMU), the measurement of the economic effects of European integration and the legal dimension in EU integration. It also includes an explanation and analysis of all recent developments affecting the EU such as enlargement, the ratification of the Nice Treaty and the Convention for the Future of Europe. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated and includes new resources to help students and teachers, including summaries, review questions, suggestions for essay titles and further reading lists.
The European Union has established itself as a leading text that provides readers from all disciplines with a sound understanding of the economics and policies of the EU. Its wealth of information, detail and analysis has ensured that previous editions have been read by a generation of students, researchers and policy makers. It covers all major EU policy areas as well as theories of economic integration, the theory of economic and monetary union (EMU), the measurement of the economic effects of European integration and the legal dimension in EU integration. It also includes an explanation and analysis of all recent developments affecting the EU such as enlargement, the ratification of the Nice Treaty and the Convention for the Future of Europe. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated and includes new resources to help students and teachers, including summaries, review questions, suggestions for essay titles and further reading lists.
The European Union has established itself as a leading text that provides readers from all disciplines with a sound understanding of the economics and policies of the EU. Its wealth of information, detail and analysis has ensured that previous editions have been read by a generation of students, researchers and policy makers. It covers all major EU policy areas as well as theories of economic integration, the theory of economic and monetary union (EMU), the measurement of the economic effects of European integration and the legal dimension in EU integration. It also includes an explanation and analysis of all recent developments affecting the EU such as enlargement, the ratification of the Nice Treaty and the Convention for the Future of Europe. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated and includes new resources to help students and teachers, including summaries, review questions, suggestions for essay titles and further reading lists.
The European Union has established itself as a leading text that provides readers from all disciplines with a sound understanding of the economics and policies of the EU. Its wealth of information, detail and analysis has ensured that previous editions have been read by a generation of students, researchers and policy makers. It covers all major EU policy areas as well as theories of economic integration, the theory of economic and monetary union (EMU), the measurement of the economic effects of European integration and the legal dimension in EU integration. It also includes an explanation and analysis of all recent developments affecting the EU such as enlargement, the ratification of the Nice Treaty and the Convention for the Future of Europe. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated and includes new resources to help students and teachers, including summaries, review questions, suggestions for essay titles and further reading lists.
The European Union has established itself as a leading text that provides readers from all disciplines with a sound understanding of the economics and policies of the EU. Its wealth of information, detail and analysis has ensured that previous editions have been read by a generation of students, researchers and policy makers. It covers all major EU policy areas as well as theories of economic integration, the theory of economic and monetary union (EMU), the measurement of the economic effects of European integration and the legal dimension in EU integration. It also includes an explanation and analysis of all recent developments affecting the EU such as enlargement, the ratification of the Nice Treaty and the Convention for the Future of Europe. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated and includes new resources to help students and teachers, including summaries, review questions, suggestions for essay titles and further reading lists.
The European Union has established itself as a leading text that provides readers from all disciplines with a sound understanding of the economics and policies of the EU. Its wealth of information, detail and analysis has ensured that previous editions have been read by a generation of students, researchers and policy makers. It covers all major EU policy areas as well as theories of economic integration, the theory of economic and monetary union (EMU), the measurement of the economic effects of European integration and the legal dimension in EU integration. It also includes an explanation and analysis of all recent developments affecting the EU such as enlargement, the ratification of the Nice Treaty and the Convention for the Future of Europe. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated and includes new resources to help students and teachers, including summaries, review questions, suggestions for essay titles and further reading lists.
The European Union has established itself as a leading text that provides readers from all disciplines with a sound understanding of the economics and policies of the EU. Its wealth of information, detail and analysis has ensured that previous editions have been read by a generation of students, researchers and policy makers. It covers all major EU policy areas as well as theories of economic integration, the theory of economic and monetary union (EMU), the measurement of the economic effects of European integration and the legal dimension in EU integration. It also includes an explanation and analysis of all recent developments affecting the EU such as enlargement, the ratification of the Nice Treaty and the Convention for the Future of Europe. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated and includes new resources to help students and teachers, including summaries, review questions, suggestions for essay titles and further reading lists.
The European Union has established itself as a leading text that provides readers from all disciplines with a sound understanding of the economics and policies of the EU. Its wealth of information, detail and analysis has ensured that previous editions have been read by a generation of students, researchers and policy makers. It covers all major EU policy areas as well as theories of economic integration, the theory of economic and monetary union (EMU), the measurement of the economic effects of European integration and the legal dimension in EU integration. It also includes an explanation and analysis of all recent developments affecting the EU such as enlargement, the ratification of the Nice Treaty and the Convention for the Future of Europe. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated and includes new resources to help students and teachers, including summaries, review questions, suggestions for essay titles and further reading lists.
The European Union has established itself as a leading text that provides readers from all disciplines with a sound understanding of the economics and policies of the EU. Its wealth of information, detail and analysis has ensured that previous editions have been read by a generation of students, researchers and policy makers. It covers all major EU policy areas as well as theories of economic integration, the theory of economic and monetary union (EMU), the measurement of the economic effects of European integration and the legal dimension in EU integration. It also includes an explanation and analysis of all recent developments affecting the EU such as enlargement, the ratification of the Nice Treaty and the Convention for the Future of Europe. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated and includes new resources to help students and teachers, including summaries, review questions, suggestions for essay titles and further reading lists.
Thought-provoking and accessible in approach, this book offers a classic introduction to European law. Taking a clear structural framework, it guides the student through the subject's core elements from its creation and enforcement to the workings of the internal market. A flowing writing style combines with the use of illustrations and diagrams throughout the text to ensure the student understands even the most complex of concepts. This succinct and enlightening overview is required reading for all students of European law.
The book is about money, central banking and constitutions. It explains how the European Central Bank was established to ensure stability and prosperity for the euro area. The ECB was guided and controlled by a coherent European Macroeconomic Constitution. However, this model has failed during recurring crises, and the ECB has started to act as the euro area fire brigade. Consequently, it is pushing the boundaries of monetary policy, and with that challenging the accountability mechanisms and fundamentally also the democratic legitimacy of the EMU. The book sheds light on this complex economic-constitutional setting with a view on the future. The imbalance between various new operations and a single price stability objective is difficult to remedy. New objectives of financial stability, economic adjustment and environmental sustainability can cause fundamental ruptures between the ECB's formal role and its actions, and they also dangerously overburden monetary policy moving forward with substantial risks.
Competition policy has been a central forum for contesting the uneasy relationship between capitalism and democracy since the late nineteenth century. From the earliest policy debates, concerns that robust competition policies aimed at limiting economic concentration would disadvantage domestic producers featured prominently. This dynamic creates an international cooperation problem over competition policy that has intensified with the dramatic increases in globalization over the last several decades. Understanding the causes and consequences of this cooperation problem is central to understanding global governance of the world economy, including the ability of democratic states to manage global capitalism in a manner that sustains democracy. This essay frames the challenge that global competition policy has posed over the last hundred years and argues that democratic major powers have played a critical role in shaping the limited cooperation that has been achieved. A research agenda that develops integrated theories of domestic and international competition policymaking as well as a multi-method empirical agenda for describing and explaining policy outcomes and their consequences for economic inequality, growth, and democracy is an essential task for international relations scholars.
There is a sense of fairness that is distinctive of markets. This is fairness among economic competitors, competitive fairness. We regularly make judgments of competitive fairness about market participants, public policies and institutions. However, it is not clear to what these judgments refer, or what moral significance they have. This paper offers a rational reconstruction of competitive fairness in terms of non-domination. It first identifies competitive fairness as a distinctive claim, advanced within markets in turn characterized as antagonistic, instrumental and procedural. It distinguishes competitive fairness from a number of familiar ideals with which it might be confused: legitimate expectation, equality of opportunity, sporting fairness and economic efficiency. While many exponents likely assume competitive fairness can be explained in terms of one of these ideals, in each case there are significant objections to doing so. Instead, the paper argues that the most promising justification of competitive fairness is under the republican ideal of non-domination, which can reconstruct many of the intuitive judgments of competitive fairness that we make in particular cases. However, it concludes, this explanation makes it difficult for exponents to continue to emphasize competitive fairness, given diverse other risks of domination, and to other values, in markets.
The scientific making of Europe. For a socio-history of the scientific co-productions of public policy
How do scientists contribute to the production of public policy? To answer this question, this article sets out to analyse the political role played by scientists broadly defined - academics, experts or practitioners claiming to master specialized knowledge – and this by using the concept of “co-production”. Drawing on the case of European integration, its first aim is to clarify this concept by distinguishing three approaches to the coproduction of public policy: event-driven, genealogical and archaeological. In particular, the text highlights the questions, actors and processes central to each case. In so doing, the aim is not so much to oppose these approaches as to show how they can be combined to sketch a socio-historical model of the contribution of scientists to the production of public policy. Overall, the article proposes an invitation for greater dialogue between socio-historical approaches and public policy analysis around the issue of scientists’ work. The different approaches presented are illustrated through the example of the building of European competition policy.
In this article the effects of cartelization on firms’ efficiency are investigated using the example of an early twentieth century coal-mining cartel in Upper Silesia: the Upper Silesian Coal Convention. Established in 1898, the cartel comprised various types of private, as well as state-owned, mining enterprises. Using a microeconomic dataset based on firm-level data of the Upper Silesian mines, I focus on the cartel’s effect on efficiency. The cartel did not significantly reduce technical efficiency among mines. This finding confirms previous research on cartels’ effects on efficiency.
During the Cold War, the place of knowledge, planning, and social science expertise in modern societies emerged as the focus of a momentous debate. The debate, often carried out under the rubric of the “knowledge society,” was directly linked to a fundamental question: whether the capitalist “West” or the socialist “East” was best prepared to provide their citizens with economic prosperity and well-being. The debate raised questions about the nature of the social sciences themselves, about the scope and character of their knowledge, and about their roles in public affairs and society. This chapter examines how the Cold War confrontation shaped this debate, showing how the views put forward by major figures including Daniel Bell, members of the “New Left” (e.g. Alain Touraine, Herbert Marcuse, and Jürgen Habermas), and prominent (neo)liberals (e.g. Joseph Schumpeter, Friedrich Hayek, and Karl Popper) continue to shape the social and political imaginations today.
Ordoliberalism is widely considered to be the dominant ideology of the German political elite today and consequently responsible at least in part for its hard ‘austerity’ line during the recent Eurozone crisis. This article presents a genealogy of the main concerns, concepts and problems around which early German ordoliberalism was formed and structured as a political and economic ideology. Early ordoliberalism is shown to be rooted in an interwar Germanophone Lutheran Evangelical tradition of anti-humanist ‘political ethics’. Its specific conceptions of the market, the state, the individual, freedom and duty were developed on a Lutheran Evangelical basis. Analytically, the article considers ideological influences of theology on political and economic theory not so much in terms of consensus and ideational overlap, but rather in terms of shared concerns, concepts and problems across different positions.
The preservation of competitive markets is a major cornerstone of modern economic policy. Cartels and anti-competitive practices are restricted, and competition authorities control mergers to avoid the excessive accumulation of market power. This chapter demonstrates that historical evidence is important to understand why cartels arise and how they work. It argues that the study of historical cartels from periods before the introduction of effective competition laws is necessary to understand how competition affects innovation and growth in the long run.
Na wstępie artykuł przedstawia dwa zasadnicze modele regulacji ochrony konkurencji: system oparty na zakazie i oraz system oparty na tak zwanej kontroli nadużywania, wraz z prezentacją rozwoju historycznego obu modeli na świecie. Zasadniczo model oparty na zakazie stosowania praktyk ograniczających konkurencję polega na wprowadzeniu zakazu o charakterze bezwzględnym (per se). Drugi model opiera się na państwowym nadzorze działalności przedsiębiorców, z państwową ingerencją w tę działalność w razie zaistnienia ograniczenia czy zagrożenia dla konkurencji na rynku. W systemie opartym na zakazie niezbędne jest wprowadzenie określonych mechanizmów relatywizujących zakazy. Wskazana konieczność podyktowana jest tak zarówno względami ekonomicznymi, jak i społeczno-politycznymi. Mechanizmy relatywizacji można podzielić na środki stosowane uprzednio (ex ante) oraz środki stosowane następczo (ex post). Polskie oraz europejskie prawo konkurencji nie zawiera przepisów wprowadzających możliwość relatywizacji zakazu nadużycia pozycji dominującej ex ante, dlatego relatywizacja taka możliwa jest jedynie w drodze aktów stosowania prawa przez organy ochrony konkurencji oraz przez właściwe sądy. Artykuł przedstawia aksjologiczne podstawy relatywizacji, jak również opisuje poszczególne środki wymienionej relatywizacji. Do środków tych należą przede wszystkim doktryny orzecznicze, wypracowane przez judykaturę. Niektóre doktryny mają podstawy w historii stosowania zakazu nadużywania pozycji dominującej, wprowadzenie innych wydaje się wymagać odpowiedniej interwencji ustawodawcy. W tym zakresie artykuł prezentuje wnioski de lege ferenda.
Demands have been growing upon firms to take actions in the interests of workers, the environment, local communities, and others. Firms sometimes have felt they could best discharge such responsibilities by cooperating with other firms. This, however, is suspect from the point of view of a purely economic interpretation of competition law, since interfirm agreements may raise prices and thus lower welfare for consumers. Should competition law remain focused on competition enhancing economic welfare, or be reformed to allow for acts of cooperation that are socially beneficial? To answer this question, the article provides a philosophical reevaluation of the deep-seated view that firms are merely private actors. It argues that demands of political legitimacy should also be addressed at firms cooperating together, and that standard views of democratic accountability should be broadened, introducing a model of delegated, sequential decision making which allows regulatory agencies and parliaments to control interfirm agreements.
Der „Law andeconomics“-Ansatz entstand an der University of Chicago in den 1940er und 1950er Jahren um die zentrale Figur von Ronald Coase. Diese wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Bewegung ist eine Manifestation des neoliberalen Projekts, das darin besteht die neoklassische Wirtschaftstheorie auf die Souveränität des Staates zu beziehen. In den 1970er und 1980er Jahren revolutionierten der Law andeconomics-Ansatz die Anwendung der Wettbewerbsgesetze in den USA. Dieser Einfluss kamallerdings nicht durch eine Veränderung des wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Mainstreams zustande, sondern indem die Rechtsexperten überzeugt wurden, den inhärenten „Unsinn“ ihrer eigenen normativen Annahmen anzuerkennen. Die sogenannte „Chicago anti-trust revolution” ist daher eine symptomatische Entwicklung wie sie Michel Foucault für den Neoliberalismus als kennzeichnend aufgefasst hat.
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