Ordering through competition? Pieter VerLoren van Themaat and social-democratic thinking about competition in the early postwar Netherlands, 1940s–1960s

This chapter discusses the development and impact of Dutch social-democratic thinking on cartels, concentrations and competition in the early postwar years by highlighting the work of Pieter VerLoren Van Themaat (1916–2004), the later director general of competition in the European Economic Communities (1958–1967), who, as an official of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, was closely involved in both policymaking and social-democratic thinking on this matter. In Dutch social-democratic thinking, VerLoren’s understanding of competition policy as primarily an instrument “ordering” market functioning filled the gap left by the abandonment of more traditional ideals of socialization. The Keynesian, instrumental alternative he helped develop, left a crucial mark on the new 1956 Dutch competition law. Moreover, as the “European” alternative to “U.S.” ideas of antitrust (and German ordoliberalism), this Keynesian understanding also marked the official Dutch positioning with regard to the early development of European (EEC) competition policy.