Istota sporu o racjonalność gospodarki socjalistycznej a idea centralnego planowania w ujęciu Hayeka

Abstract

Hayek’s position in the dispute over about rationality of the socialist economy is closely related to his original view on the essence of the economic problem. Hayek underlines that the general economic problem of each society consists not only in the choice of goals and means of economic activity but also or primarily in the acquisition and transfer of detailed knowledge of society’s resources and individuals' various objectives. In Hayek’s view, knowledge o f this kind may be used only in the system of competition thanks to the price mechanism and decentralization of decisions. That’s why the conclusive argument used by the author of the Road to Serfdom in his criticism of central planning is the ecpistemiological argument. By means of that argument Hayek shows also the utopian nature of the proposal for using the mathematical method in managing the centralized socialist economy. Although it is hard to accept the view that the market may be the only regulatory system in the complex contemporary economic organisms it should be admitted that the direction of criticism of the centrally planned economy presented by Hayek was right.