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Hegel’s concept of corporation as the mediation between free market and state

Cobben Paul (University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Philosophy, Amsterdam, Netherlands)

The experiences of the communist countries in Eastern Europe have made clear that the centralized planned economy (without a free market) does not function. From Hegel’s perspective, it can be said that this experience is not just coincidental: the abolition of the free market includes the abolition of the institutional framework that enables insight into the formation of particular interests. Without this insight, it becomes impossible to determine the content of the general good. Therefore, Hegel’s alternative, self-conscious planning of the economic process while the free market is preserved, seems to be unavoidable. However, it remains highly problematic whether or how this connection between planning and free market can be understood. In this article I investigate whether Hegel’s concept of the corporation can help in finding an answer to this problem.

Keywords: Corporation, System of Needs, wage labor, rationalization, Hegel, Marx