著者

福澤 直樹

出版者

政治経済学・経済史学会

雑誌

歴史と経済 (ISSN:13479660)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.49, no.3, pp.1-11, 2007-04-30 (Released:2017-08-30)

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Even though the market economy is at the core of the socio-economic order in modern Germany, certain adjustment has been necessary due to limits on its function and coverage. It was not always the State but primarily individual consanguineous, territorially-connected and/or multiple social linkages (or solidarity), which carried out this adjustment. However, as the extent of economic activity expanded and each nation state became firmly established as an economic unit, social problems became a growing concern and the State could not ignore its social responsibilities. Social benefits in Germany after the enactment of legislation creating the "Workers' Insurance" in the 1880s were a typical expression of this trend. However, existing communities or solidarity associations not infrequently hindered the development of a system of nationwide solidarity. Friction was often generated between individual interests which promoted the conservation of social and economic differences, and the intention to expand social cooperation to the nationwide scale. Even though nationwide solidarity was functionally ineffective in the severe economic circumstances of the depression, and a national community was once built forcibly at the cost of enormous sacrifice, the concept of nationwide solidarity became a generally established principle in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) after WWII within the system of the market economy. This nationwide solidarity was further complemented by communities or associations for solidarity in various dimensions in the form of pluralistic function in the social welfare system. In the FRG the "Welfare State" was not pursued as a providing state, but as a "Sozialstaat"(Social State) on a philosophical foundation, derived from a full consideration of the nature of the market economy. In this concept of a "Social State", the realization of fair distribution and the elimination of inappropriate social and economic difference was to be pursued, at least in the speculative dimension, in a fashion compatible with the market economy and without hindering its effectiveness or incentives to individual economic activity. Although factors such as the ending of rapid economic growth after WWII or the "oil shock" might expose difficulties or limits of the enhancement of social benefits, this did not provoke a fundamental dismantling or reconstruction of the system of social benefits in the FRG. It might be thought that this was because of a solid agreement about the nature of the "social state" in Germany, but recent movements contradict this interpretation. Even the Social Democratic Party is now willing to cut back the welfare system in the face of economic difficulties brought about by strong economic competition due to globalization and regional integration. It is to be wondered what happened to the philosophical constructs underlying the fairness of distribution and the health of the market economy. In this sense, the dynamism of the "social state" is still a meaningful field for research.

著者

福澤 直樹

出版者

経済理論学会

雑誌

季刊経済理論 (ISSN:18825184)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.49, no.4, pp.43-53, 2013-01-20 (Released:2017-04-25)

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The Federal Republic of Germany is regarded as a welfare stat (e in the local phrase "Sozialstaat",[so to say "social state"]) with high rate of social benefits to the GDP after the World War II. With the concept "social market economy" they have accepted the public intervention to the economy in order to enforce the market mechanism, which has led to unexpectedly high level of the social benefi ts as a result. Recently, however, in the worldwide recession and the competitive pressure from an expanding global economy the additional labor costs beside the wage in a welfare state are regarded as so heavy burden that the policy orientating the cut off of the welfare costs like the "Agenda 2010" was pursued even under the administration of the left government. Thus it is to question whether the welfare and the rational handling of the economy is really incompatible, wherefore the nature of the "Sozialstaat" should be discussed in the historical perspective. In the FRG the people from the conservative to the reformists have agreed with the socially conceived state in bringing together to a vague concept "social" under the hidden immanent variety of its understanding, but in keeping the principle of the free market economy at the same time. However, the country had to remain in an unexpected provisioning state till the mid-50s because of urgent problems as a consequence of the War, even under the administration of the conservative coalition which wanted actually to carry out market-compliant policy. The confusion of the benefit systems, however, had to be gotten together, what was partly realized in the reconstruction of the economic performance. The Pension Reform in 1957 was one of the most significant cases with which the pension was now adapted to the actual wage level dynamically. It means a social benefit has been realized which kept the standard of life of the recipient in substituting the former wage. Thus the scale of social benefits has expanded, during the system maintained the social disparities substantially. This successful transition brought and confirmed the trend of German social policy in the 1960s to meet the social demand favorably in spite of the slow down of the high economic growth till that time. In order to fulfill the growing social demand the systematic redistribution was ineluctably organized, what has continued also in the 70s and 80s even after the oil shock and in the persisting depression. The economic crisis caused financial embarrassments of the fund for welfare systems (with reduced tax revenue and reduced contribution of the Social Insurance), for which reason various propositions for the cutback in expenditure were taken into consideration. In fact some measures were taken which reduced the level and coverage of the benefits in existing welfare systems. But the consensus to be "social" hindered the essential dismantlement of the system. The critical economic environment since the late 1990s has enhanced, indeed, the awareness of the need of reforms. Thus the bundle of countermeasures like the "Agenda 2010" was carried out under the administration of social democrats, which provoked a sensation and seemingly disposed the social discordance. It has become a moot point whether the consensus for the "Sozialstaat" still exists. But the socially conceived management of the market economy itself has not disappeared, which was not inevitably coherent with the equality. The social intervention has been working for the smooth function of the free market and made social capitalism possible, which has allowed eventually the high level of social benefits. Therefore it seems to be still disputable that the consensus to be "social" has already dissolved.

著者

福澤 直樹

出版者

政治経済学・経済史学会

雑誌

歴史と経済 (ISSN:13479660)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.62, no.2, pp.18-26, 2020-01-30 (Released:2022-01-30)

参考文献数

6

著者

福澤 直樹

出版者

政治経済学・経済史学会

雑誌

土地制度史学 (ISSN:04933567)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.36, no.4, pp.1-17, 1994-07-20

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of the state assistance-system for unemployed from the period of Wilhelmine Germany to the Weimar Republic and to make its background clear. In Germany no assistance-system for unemployed was taken by the state before World War I. This was not caused by the absence of the unemployment problem, but by the absence of agreement to that the state organize the redistribution as seen in the social insurance or in the state subsidy, due to the dominance of the classical Liberal way of thinking. It was after the war, in the political and economic confusion, with enormous unemployment, that the first state assistance-system for unemployed was introduced. However, it was not the unemployment insurance planned earlier, but rather a special unemployment assistance which was financed solely from the public (mainly state) expenditure, the so-called "Erwerbslosenfiirsorge", because there was no prospect of keeping the finance of insurance just after the end of the war. After that, several attempts were made to realize the unemployment insurance more adequate for a market economy, in which the propotion of benefit to burden is clear. But the attempts were not successful till 1927. In the meantime the Erwerbslosenfiirsorge went on, as the only state assistance-system for unemployed, in spite of problems of administration, conflict between proportional contributions and standardized benefits which appeared after the hyper-inflation, and insufficient right to assistance due to means-testing. The Erwerbslosenfiirsorge kept the assistance just sufficient to sustain the essentials of life, even in the financial pressure in the recession in 1925/26. The Erwerbslosenfiirsorge functioned as the actual system for effective maintenance of the livelihood of the unemployed. The right to social security for unemployed was essentially established, de facto, with the Erwerbslosenfiirsorge. But the Erwerbslosenfiirsorge lacks the financial stability, and the confusion of bases of burden and benefit brought social frictions. Therefore, the unemployment-assistance system had to be changed into a state insurance system. Because of this change, a wide range of people would not be covered by the new system. Therefore, a main point of discussion about introduction of unemployment insurance was, how a security system with benefits corresponding to former income could be established without hindering the function of insurance as a comprehensive social security system. As a result, the elements of planned redistribution were included in the insurance, contrary to the original intent. For the persons excluded from this social security system, a parallel system like "Flirsorge" was introduced. The establishment of the insurance law in 1927 can be understood as a systematization of both functions of social security, i.e. the insurance, which is adequate for a market economy, and the Fiirsorge, which had been combined with the right to assistance in the Erwerbslosenfiirsorge. We can see that the origin of the complementary relationship between unemployment insurance and unemployment aid in the contemporary Employment Law in Germany had already been established at this time.

著者

福澤 直樹

雑誌

研究成果報告書『第二次大戦後ドイツにおける社会的市場経済・社会主義的市場経済・社会主義計画経済 』

巻号頁・発行日

pp.101-106, 2005-03

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科学研究費補助金 研究種目:基盤研究(C)(2) 課題番号:14530094 研究代表者:福澤直樹 研究期間:2002-2004年度