Is Herbert Hovenkamp a Closet Chicagoan?
Thom Lambert thinks so and presents the evidence in this post on Truth on the Market. Similarly, Randy Picker offers this brief and highly readable summary of Hovenkamp’s latest book, The Antitrust Enterprise, in which he reaches pretty much the same conclusion (”Chicago apologist”). Our very own Dan Crane supports the verdict in his forthcoming article Antitrust Modesty. Obviously, there is no fundamental disagreement between the two major competing schools of contemporary competition theory; the current antitrust marketplace of ideas is, by and large, characterized by “well mannered competition.”
And so, in a way, both Dan and Thom seem to be making a highly critical point in a perfectly polite manner: Hovenkamp’s book is extremely well written, (mostly) accurate, and largely superfluous. Unlike Bork and Posner in their days, Hovenkamp doesn’t outline a new, bold agenda. In fact, he adds very little new to the present debate, largely because there is no debate about the goals of antitrust any more. Maybe Hovenkamp’s book will be of great value to an antitrust historian in the year 2056, who is writing a chapter about a rather boring interlude in the evolution of the antitrust laws, where no disruptive innovation took place. From a literary standpoint, that’s a pity, because (paraphrasing Oscar Wilde) modesty is a deadly thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.
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November 21st, 2006 at 12:33 pm
[...] For intellectual and historical background, you might want to read about The Factions of Antitrust. There are four major schools of thought in the United States concerning the relationship between government and economic markets, resulting in four corresponding approaches to the role of antitrust and competition policy. From political “right” to “left”, they are: Libertarian, Neoclassical (”Chicago”), Post-Chicago, and Populist. As is suggested in recent postings at the Antitrust Review weblog and Truth on the Market, the “Chicago School” has won most of the important debates in antitrust law — in academia and the courts – over the past couple of decades. [...]