Abstract

HERRERA-TORRES, Hugo Amador  and  ARIAS-TORRES, Daniela. Perfect Competition in Hayek’s Neoliberalism. A Critique Based on the Transcendental Concepts of Hinkelammert. Espiga [online]. 2025, vol.24, n.50, pp.155-179. ISSN 2215-454X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.22458/re.v24i50.6090.

The aim of this essay is to determine what type of transcendental content the model of perfect competition has in Friedrich Hayek’s neoliberalism. The examination of the content is based on the proposal of transcendental concepts developed by Franz Josef Hinkelammert, and the research method used is the analectic one. The document upholds Hinkelammert’s thesis that transcendental concepts can derive –through thought itself or through human action– into illusions. The findings indicate that transcendental illusions predominate in the model. First, the incorrect approach to perfect competition: Hayek, through an empirical market with certain characteristics, seeks to generate a tendency toward perfect competition. The approach should be the opposite: starting from perfect competition to define the empirical market. Second, the model is founded on mercantile criteria: it leaves aside the needs whose satisfaction makes possible the physical-biological existence of subjects. Third, the model has logical inconsistencies in its design: perfect competition constitutes, in the empirical sphere, a non-competition, and the simultaneous partial equilibria it programs have a reverse meaning compared to the successive partial equilibria that appear in reality.

Keywords : Competition Economics; Economic Model; Market; Transcendental Illusions.

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