Soziale Marktwirtschaft damals und heute

2020 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Gunther Schnabl

AbstractThe German currency reform on 20 June 1948, together with a comprehensive liberalization of prices as well as monopoly control formed the basis for the post-war West German economic miracle, which became the economic backbone of the European integration process. 70 years later, little remains of the basic principles of the social market economy. An increasingly expansive monetary policy of the European Central Bank undermines competition, growth and social cohesion in Europe, which puts political stability at risk. To ensure economic, political and social stability in Europe, a return to the principles of Walter Eucken und Ludwig Erhard is necessary.

2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Thiemeyer

This article focuses on the economic aspects of German European policy in the 1950s and raises the question whether the economic system of the Federal Republic of Germany, “Soziale Marktwirtschaft” had any impact on the European policy of the West German state. It argues that Social Market Economy as defined by Ludwig Erhard influenced German European policy in certain aspects, but there was a latent contradiction between the political approach of Konrad Adenauer and this economic concept. Moreover, this article shows that West German European policy was not always as supportive for European unity as it is often considered.


Author(s):  
Kenneth Dyson

This chapter examines the myth and reality of Ordo-liberal intellectual capture of Germany and the role of Ordo-liberalism in efforts to construct a new post-war national unifying myth. It focuses on the genesis of the concept of the social market economy and its relationship to Ordo-liberalism; on the distinction between fundamentalists and realists in Ordo-liberalism; and on the differences between philosopher-economists and statesmen-economists. Close attention is paid to the ideas and role of Ludwig Erhard and his network of support; the institutional appropriation of Ordo-liberalism by the Bundesbank, the federal cartel office, and the federal economic ministry’s economic policy division; and the role of Ordo-liberalism in competition policy, in European economic and monetary union, and in German policy during the euro area crisis. At the same time, stress is placed on the gaps in Ordo-liberal thinking and counter-national unifying myths, drawing on social Catholicism, social partnership, and civilian power. The chapter has three main case studies: of Ordo-liberalism in the Great Depression, focusing on the Brauns Commission, the Lautenbach Plan, and the role of Wilhelm Röpke; central bank independence, monetary policy reform in the early 1970s, and the ‘monetarist revolution’; and Alfred Müller-Armack’s proposal for a European Stabilization Board. These case studies use archival evidence. The chapter closes with reflections on the significance of Ordo-liberalism in Germany.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-98
Author(s):  
Flavio Felice

Abstract What do we mean by “civil” and “civil society”? This paper attempts to describe a complex notion of “civil economy” in Sturzo’s theoretical perspective of the social market economy. According to this political theory, “civil” is not opposed to “market,” which is not opposed to “the political” (the state). Rather, instead of being the transmission belt between the state and market, civil is the galaxy in which we find also the market and the state (but not only), each with its own functions. This tradition – rooted in Christianity – was able to oppose both Nazi and communist totalitarianism, while many Catholics made an impossible attempt to exhume corporatism.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-74
Author(s):  
María Guadalupe Martino ◽  
Christian Müller

Abstract The civil economy approach is an attempt to reconcile economic market interactions with the normative standards of traditional virtue ethics. We analyze critically some of its main elements with a special focus on the concept of reciprocity, which plays a central role in the whole approach. Its strengths include, among others, virtue orientation, emphasis on happiness rather than utility, and in particular the notion of reciprocity. However, we argue that this concept of reciprocity would on average not be incentive compatible, and from a methodological point of view, the implied hypothesis of a homo reciprocans is not a viable alternative to the standard model of homo oeconomicus. We also consider that the approach is not entirely new, as it shares many characteristics with the social market economy conception.


Author(s):  
Svetlana Yurievna Abdulova ◽  
Olga Anatolievna Gavrilova

The article dwells upon the continued decrease of income level of the Russian population as a result of the financial crisis and rising inflation, which is followed by yearly contraction of needs and savings. The analysis of the income structure of the Russian people confirmed the growth of the share of wages while reducing income from the use of property, business income, and social benefits. The tendencies to changing the income level in the different industries and regions of the Russian Federation have been identified. The average income level of the population of the Astrakhan region has been defined, the finance dynamics for the period from 2016 to 2018 has been evaluated. The tendencies to changing individual components of the population income in the Astrakhan region have been investigated: wages, business income, employment of property, social benefits. There has been estimated the average monthly wage in the region (in nominal and real terms) and the rate of its changes over the studied period. The estimation of the size of social payments to the population of the Astrakhan region has been made. The main part in the total volume of social payments to the population comes to pensions (74.8%). The criteria of the subsistence minimum both in the country and in the region have been given. It has been inferred that the living cost in the country is greatly underestimated, actually, in half, compared to the real living cost, which is related to saving the budget. In the Astrakhan region a great proportion of the population has incomes below the minimum subsistence level: 16.0% of the region’s population is below the poverty line. To reduce the level of poverty, to increase incomes of the population and to reduce the share of citizens with incomes below the subsistence minimum there have been proposed a number of that will help to reach a higher standard of living in accordance with the requirements of the social market economy.


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