Pierre Larouche (Université de Montréal) has posted Ordo-Liberalism for the Digital Age — Heike Schweitzer’s “Decentralized Coordination Order” on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Heike Schweitzer’s “decentralized coordination order” rejuvenates ordo-liberal thought. Yet her analysis is hampered by reliance on market failure as the linchpin between economics and law. A matrix of market theories – with efficiency-discovery and constructivist-naturalist axes – shows that the theoretical space for law is much larger than simply remedying market failure. In our digital economy, physical or virtual marketplaces are being replaced by automated matchmaking, driven by platforms and agentic AI. This development reveals and threatens implicit assumptions that underpinned more naturalist/spontaneous market theories. The question is then not so much whether markets fail, but whether they are operative. A more constructivist mechanism design approach should be followed, where law takes a larger role in ensuring that markets work at all. At stake is not only the presence of consumer surplus from an efficiency-based perspective, but the very survival of markets as decentralized discovery mechanisms.
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