Hayek, penseur du « doux commerce » : la société moderne est-elle principalement soudée par des « réseaux d’argent » ?

Abstract

Much attention has hitherto been paid to Hayek’s reference to Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”. In his view, this metaphor helped shed light on spontaneous social orders, that is orders that are unintentionally produced and which Hayek aims to account for, more precisely market order. However, an exclusive focus on this reference leaves questions unanswered: first, what does Hayek aim to account for, when examining these spontaneous social orders? In other words, what does he mean by “order” in this context? Second, why does his investigation mainly focus on economic order? In order to address these questions, it is useful to bring to light another one of Hayek’s conceptual appropriations, namely that of “doux commerce”. An analysis of this conceptual borrowing by Hayek takes us deep into his defence and justification of liberalism. Nevertheless, to adequately grasp the significance of this appropriation, it is necessary to highlight the conceptual shifts Hayek applies to this theme, when he argues that “cash-nexus […] holds the Great Society together”, that is, constitutes the ultimate basis of peaceful order in modern society.

Keywords

• Friedrich August von Hayek
• modern society
• market order
• liberalism
• doux commerce
• Hirschman