Solidarist economics: the legacy of Heinrich Pesch.

Abstract

Heinrich Pesch, a German economist and Jesuit priest, can be considered the father of Catholic Economics. This paper presents the essential elements of his solidarist economics, as a premise to rebuild the foundations of political economy. The deep intellectual basis for Pesch's prescription in the economic realm is laid out and his legacy is considered. The adoption of solidarism in a practical sense has not yet materialized on any significant scale. Pesch's major influence has been to shape Catholic Social Thought at its core.

Introduction

The central question of economics is what to produce, for whom, and how to produce it. The matter is, of course, central to human affairs. As corporeal beings we must win our way in the world by provisioning for ourselves as any organism does. We are not just another material object in nature, however. Human beings live not just by instinct but by rationality. We think ourselves through the question of political economy, as it were, and our enterprises, those institutions we charge with the "solving" of the provisioning problem, rest on or originate from these thoughts, whether we acknowledge this most basic of realities or not. The point was forcefully and eloquently made by John Maynard Keynes at the midpoint of the 20th Century:

  The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are
  right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly
  understood. Indeed the world is run by little else. Practical men, who
  believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences
  are usually the slaves of some defunct economist ... It is ideas, not
  vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil [5:383-84].

This also suggests that if we find ourselves in an economic or cultural crisis, then we need to re-examine the foundational ideas of political economy as the source of our problems. Could it be that the luminaries, Smith and Marx, who have taken center stage for so long, got it at least partly wrong and as a result have left us in the darkness? Even then we are still left wondering to whom we can turn for the light we need to guide us. This paper examines the thoughts of a much less well known figure of the 20th Century, Heinrich Pesch, Jesuit priest and humble scholar, for just this purpose. Can the ideas he offers, referred to as solidarist economics, illuminate a sustainable path for our civilization and yield a model for enterprise to run as it ought to?