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Governing Dynamics and Superfragility: Liberal Political Economists as Order Guardians

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Kolev, S. Governing Dynamics and Superfragility: Liberal Political Economists as Order Guardians. Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, 99999(), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.2024.375230
Kolev, Stefan "Governing Dynamics and Superfragility: Liberal Political Economists as Order Guardians" Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch 99999., 2025, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.2024.375230
Kolev, Stefan (2025): Governing Dynamics and Superfragility: Liberal Political Economists as Order Guardians, in: Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, vol. 99999, iss. , 1-20, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.2024.375230

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Governing Dynamics and Superfragility: Liberal Political Economists as Order Guardians

Kolev, Stefan

Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Online First : pp. 1–20

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Stefan Kolev, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Applied Sciences Zwickau

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Abstract

This article pursues two goals. First, to reflect on how historical Ordnungsökonomik (Economics of Order) illuminates the politico-economic crises in today’s Western democracies via the increasing parallels to the fragilities and fractures of the 1930s. Second, based on these historical inspirations, to come closer to a modern Ordnungsökonomik targeted specifically at today’s crises. The three-step approach consists of an anamnesis (“crisis burger”), a diagnosis (“anxiety from over-dynamics”), and a therapy (“fixed points towards order security”). Thus the article revisits the role of liberal political economists as order guardians amid what I call superfragility, a context in which citizens radically lose trust and unsubscribe from the order, making the trust-enhancing role of liberal political economists existential for the order’s future.