Dahrendorf Hypothesis

The Dahrendorf Hypothesis is the name given to an hypothesis by the British political scientist Baron Dahrendorf, which states that diversity is desirable in economic policies across time and space according to local needs.

Dahrendorf argues that societies are quite considerably different from each other, and that any one set of economic policies will not be equally well adapted to all societies (e.g. the same policies will not work as well in poor, subsistence economies as they will in advanced industrial economies). The Dahrendorf Hypothesis was developed in opposition to many traditional perspectives and theories in economics, most notably neoclassical economics, which implicitly or explicitly hold that one set of economic policies should be implemented globally and universally.

References

Dahrendorf, Ralf (1998): "Ein neuer Dritter Weg? Reformpolitik am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts", Tübingen: Mohr.

Schellenbach, Jan (2003): [http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/cjeconf/delegates/schnellenbach.pdf “The Dahrendorf hypothesis and its implications for (the theory of) economic policy-making”] .