Rudolf Steiner is not often referred to as an economist, at least not in the Anglo-Saxon world where modern economics has its locus, but his 1922 lectures on economics, 'Economics – the world as one economy', may yet be seen as paradigmatic in that Steiner's primary concern is with the need to think economically (see Literature).
In his introduction to the lectures entitled 'Rudolf Steiner, Economist', Christopher Houghton Budd places Steiner on the map by surveying his overall work and main ideas in this field, as well as his experiences in business life. Themes range from Steiner’s ideas about the appropriate way of thinking in economics and the responsibility economists have for society at large, to commentary on the key events of his time – notably the Treaty of Versailles.
Steiner's approach assumes the evolution of consciousness, an idea largely absent from economics. For this reason, in Houghton Budd's words, ”Steiner was insistent that ... the kind of thinking needed to understand economics died away just at the time when so-called economic science began to emerge. He was of the view that a genuine science of economics had yet to be created, [requiring] quite different thinking to that employed in natural science, making the latter unsuitable as a model for economic science.”
Steiner’s contribution to economics has a sophistication that matches the complexity of modern economics, especially as it has now come to be embedded in the whole apparatus of modern thought. Introducing ideas that entail relatively little by way of new terminology, Steiner indicates that humanity has entered an age of global economy in which it has become necessary to grasp the economic process through its inherent dynamic. Today especially, this needs to be done by understanding the nature of money (that there are three kinds) and by working associatively.
Associative Economics
Since the beginning of the 20th century humanity has entered a new stage of societal development characterised by the appearance of global economy, as distinct from the preceding, but still co-existing stages of private and national economics.
Rudolf Steiner draws attention to the fact that this often unnoticed development in human affairs requires a new approach to economic science. Closed and single, the appearance of a global economy shows the approach described by Adam Smith, in terms of world trade and competing national economies, to be anachronistic. The earth cannot, after all, balance payments with Mars! The dynamic of a closed economy requires inherent regulation.
The failure to accommodate this change resulted in the First World War. According to Steiner, the remedy for this historical problem lies in autonomous economic governance on a consciously co-ordinated associative basis. This does not require a political programme of any kind, but a more precise understanding of the actual economic phenomena themselves. For Steiner, insofar as economics has its roots in 19th century emulation of the 'hard' sciences, it cannot be called a science. For that, an entirely new approach is needed embracing methodology, history, sociology, accounting and the insight that money is an articulated not a monolithic phenomenon. Above all, Steiner's emphasis is on the need for the human being to place himself at the centre of economic processes and to draw his understanding of economic life from the experience of his own conduct, rather than the theoretical world of the abstract observer.
The term 'associative economics' describes just such a way of understanding modern economic life. Pointing to a next step after market economics, it describes the landscape that comes into being as and when humanity, individually and collectively, moves towards association. This it can only do when economic life is grasped as a whole, not from the point of view of one person only, and also not until the way we do business and manage the economic aspect of our institutions matches the exigencies and inherent dynamics of a single global economy.