[Review of La Revue Economique et Sociale: Revue Mensuelle d’Etudes et d’Information Economiques]

Hayek on La Revue Economique et Sociale (1944)

Friedrich August von Hayek’s brief review surveys the first, third, and fourth issues of a new economic monthly associated with Algiers and Paris. It moves from publication details and contributors to the journal’s intellectual scope, concluding with an endorsement of the undertaking’s ambition under wartime conditions.

Though the journal appears to be designed mainly for the discussion of problems of reconstruction and for the exchange of information with the Allies, articles on more general topics such as the economic functions of the State, the future of liberalism, the policy towards monopolies and the relations between technology and the spirit of capitalism fill the greater part of these early issues.

The distinction between the journal’s apparent practical purpose and its broader theoretical content organizes Hayek’s assessment. Reconstruction provides the immediate setting, but questions of state power, liberalism, monopoly, and capitalism dominate the early issues. The translation of Beveridge’s preface to Charles Madge’s Industry after the War and reports on British and American publications also establish the journal’s role in international intellectual exchange.

Hayek’s final judgment concerns the resources and determination required to sustain a specialized monthly in Algiers. His praise is institutional rather than an endorsement of particular economic doctrines:

It is to be hoped that the eloquent appeal for support from contributors, readers, and subscribers, with which the first number opens, will find all the response it deserves.

The review’s significance lies in this encouragement of an emerging forum for economic debate and Allied information exchange.