The Social Order

What is the connection between sound money and a stable society?

In The Social Order, Jacques Rueff—one of France’s most distinguished twentieth-century economists—delivers a penetrating analysis of how monetary and fiscal policy shape not only economic outcomes but the very fabric of social life. Originally published at a moment of great monetary upheaval and now available in English for the first time, Rueff’s magnum opus remains highly relevant for understanding today’s persistent inflation, debt crises, and economic disorder.

At the heart of Rueff’s argument lies the relationship between property rights and monetary integrity. When governments create by fiscal recklessness what Rueff calls false rights—claims to wealth unbacked by real savings—they distort prices and ultimately undermine the rule of law. By contrast, a regime of true rights, grounded in sound money and budgetary discipline, fosters economic order, legal predictability, and social harmony.

Rueff’s insights go beyond monetary mechanics. Drawing on law, psychology, and political theory, he argues that the erosion of monetary and fiscal order is not just a technical problem—it is a moral and political one. Central planning, inflationary financing, and fiscal profligacy do not merely misallocate resources; they corrode the very institutions on which a free society depends.

For readers concerned about today’s economic imbalances and their broader consequences, The Social Order is both a warning and a guide. Rueff’s elegant reasoning and principled defense of economic order and human freedom make this book a landmark contribution to the philosophy of money, capital theory, and constitutional political economy.

Jacques Rueff (1896–1978) is arguably Franceʼs most distinguished twentieth-century economist. He was born the son of a well-known Parisian physician and studied economics and mathematics at the École Polytechnique. Known during his lifetime as “lʼanti-Keynes,” Rueff was one of the gold standardʼs most articulate exponents. An important economic advisor to President Charles de Gaulle, Rueff was also a major figure in the management of the French economy during the Great Depression. In the early 1930s, he was as a financial attaché in London, in charge of the Bank of France's sterling reserves. After the war Rueff became one of the leading French members of the classical liberal Mont Pelerin Society, the president of the Inter-Allied Reparations Agency (IARA), and the minister of state of Monaco. He was strongly in favor of European integration and served from 1952 to 1962 as a judge on the European Court of Justice.

Jurgen Reinhoudt is a political scientist, researcher, author, and translator. He has been affiliated with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and he is co-editor of The Walter Lippmann Colloquium: The Birth of Neo-Liberalism.