ABSTRACT

This book makes an innovative link between classical liberalism and questions of international economic order. The author begins with an outline of classical liberalism as applied to domestic economic order. He then surveys the classical liberal tradition from the Scottish Enlightenment to modern thinkers like Knight, Hayekn and Viner. Finally, he brings together the insights of thinkers in this tradition to provide a synthetic overview of classical liberalism and international economic order.
The author's deployment of classical liberalism strikes a different note to other 'liberal' interpretations in economics and political science. In particular, classical liberalism points to the domestic preconditions of international order, and advocates unilateral liberalisation in the context of an institutional competition between states.

chapter 1|12 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|20 pages

What is Classical Liberalism?

chapter 3|29 pages

The International Political Economy of David Hume and Adam Smith

Commercial openness, institutional change and unilateral free trade

chapter 4|18 pages

The Political Economy of Frank Knight

Classical liberalism from Chicago

chapter 6|26 pages

Ordoliberalism and the Social Market

Classical political economy from Germany

chapter 7|19 pages

The International Political Economy of Wilhelm RÖpke

Liberalism ‘from below’

chapter 8|21 pages

Jan Tumlir

Democratic constitutionalism and international economic order