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.