Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/179912 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper No. 2018/9
Publisher: 
Freie Universität Berlin, School of Business & Economics, Berlin
Abstract: 
Competing definitions of justice in Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics indicate the existence of two distinct economic systems with different normative priorities. The three-class society of the Platonic economy (guardians, auxiliaries, producers) gives rise to guardians who by virtue are expected to enforce output targets on producers directly or through auxiliaries. The three-class society of the Aristotelian economy (rich, middle, poor) facilitates the emergence of different ruling coalitions and compensates efficiency losses of vertical production processes with political gains derived from representative governance. In the Aristotelian economy, the middle class is better off than in the Platonic economy (auxiliaries), because a just society (polity) is achieved under its rule. I argue that the equilibrium solutions of the Platonic and Aristotelian systems provide the normative foundations for the distinction between plan and market.
Subjects: 
Plato
Aristotle
central planning
market mechanism
political regimes
economic systems
JEL: 
D63
P11
P14
P16
P21
P26
P52
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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