Property as an Institution: Summary and Prospect

Hobbes explicitly pointed out that property exists only if the exclusion of others is guaranteed by the state. People must come to an understanding with each other for such an ownership guarantee to develop. The question of how to reach a consensus concerning property and state, and what effects it produces, was the central topic of his contemplation on property. It may well be that after working his way through the jungle of theories, the reader has gained the impression that they merely differ in nuances. It should, however, have become clear that the conceptions of man supported by representatives of property theory diverge strongly. Philosophers have still explicitly discussed the question of the conception of man and the purpose of private property; utilitarians have then already accepted property as an institution useful to man. For representatives of neoclassicism, who assume the individual pursuit of profit, property has an incentive quality and leads to increase of welfare. In monetary theory, it generates existential fear and is the precondition of the dynamic system of money economy. Finally, institutionalists again take up Hume’s idea of a learning, understanding man, attempt to stem injustice in accordance with Rousseau and to open up scope for action. In the end, theories differ from each other according to their emphasis on either freedom, security, justice or efficiency.