Laissez-faire or wu wei (non-action)?
It is of passing, and teasing, interest that the English language economic usage of laissez faire derives from the more profound and nobler Chinese political ideal of wu wei.
The 18th Century French Physiocrat, François Quesnay, who was known as the European Confucius and who influenced significantly the thinking of the Scottish moral philosopher and author of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, introduced laissez faire to Europe, apparently as a direct translation of wu wei – otherwise translated as non action.
The contrasting meaning of laissez faire in contemporary economic thought and of wu wei in classical Chinese thought reflects essential differences between Western and Eastern organisational preoccupations.
Laissez faire advocates giving the market place an over-riding authority that reduces a large proportion of judgements to quantitative terms. Wu wei associates over-riding authority with a noble ruler or administrator whose virtuous example is qualitative, requiring little in terms of the active exercise of power.
While wu wei may seem to be something of a quixotic ideal, the achievements of Chinese rulers over three millennium suggest that it contains a profound practicality that transcends the financial priorities inherent in laissez faire. Moreover, the contemporary administrators of East Asian communities often seem to employ a modern form of wu wei in exercising authority and guiding the region’s highly successful corporate strategies.