Lange, Oskar Rysard

(1904–1965)

   Oskar Lange was a noted economist and social theorist who made a significant contribution to socialist economic theory. Born in Poland he became an academic teaching at universities in both Poland and the United States. He was actively involved in politics, becoming ambassador of the Polish People’s Republic in Washington. He was also Polish representative to the United Nations Security Council in 1945, chaired the Economic Council for the Polish People’s Republic from 1957 to 1962, chaired the European Economic Council from 1957 to 1959, and provided economic planning advice to the governments of India, Ceylon and Iraq.

   Lange’s contributions to economic theory included the elaboration of a model of market socialism. He saw the dangers of economic centralization and bureaucratization and tried to create an alternative that involved democratic planning, decentralized decision-making and a role for the market. He endeavored to synthesize neo-classical, Keynesian and Marxist economic theories, and placed emphasis on what he called “praxeology,” the theory of efficient and rational economic decision-making. In his later years he took a keen interest in cybernetics and its parallels and connections with dialectical materialism.