ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the ideas of the economist and politician Ludwig Erhard, who is generally considered to be the father of the West German ‘Economic Miracle’ after Second World War and the main promoter of the Federal Republic’s Soziale Marktwirtschaft during his term of office as Minister of Economics from 1949 to 1963. Erhard’s attitudes towards competition and economic concentration would appear to present a good testing-ground for the arguments which have been put forward in this article so far. At first glance this ground seems to be rather narrowly conceived. In reality, Erhard never had much interest in a search for principles and mechanisms which established, and permanently secured, a system of perfect competition. The American elites had in their majority come out of crisis of the 1930s with the firm conviction that the re-establishment of an ‘Open Door’ world economy and a multilateral trading system was not only vital for the reconstitution of community of nations.
