TY - GEN A1 - Schnellenbach, Jan T1 - The Dahrendorf hypothesis and its implications for (the theory of) economic policy-making T2 - Cambridge Journal of Economics N2 - The sociologist R. Dahrendorf has recently suggested that there is no and there ought to be no convergence of economic policies towards some common ideal model. On the contrary, he states that ‘diversity is […] at the very heart of a world that has abandoned the need for closed, encompassing systems’. It is shown in this paper that the Dahrendorf hypothesis is difficult to reconcile with orthodox economic approaches to economic policy-making. A perspective on policy-making that introduces either fundamental uncertainty or endogenous policy preferences or both is, however, shown to be consistent with the Dahrendorf hypothesis. Y1 - 2016 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-UBICO/frontdoor/index/index/docId/15826 SN - 1464-3545 VL - 29 IS - 6 SP - 997 EP - 1009 ER -