Economic democracy

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With economic democracy various historical and contemporary models of society are referred to which the co-determination and participation of workers and their organizations on the regularity and process policy of the economy or raise a legitimate organization and management of the economy to the program.

The term was coined by a commission headed by Fritz Naphtali on behalf of the General German Trade Union Federation to develop a program for the democratization of the economy. The program on economic democracy, developed collectively by well-known scientists, was approved by the delegates of the Hamburg trade union congress in 1928. In their understanding, it represented a transition program to socialism.

After the Second World War, the German Federation of Trade Unions followed up on this concept with its Munich program from 1949, which aimed at an economic reorganization between capitalism and communist planned economy.

Definitions

The Sociological Lexicon defines economic democracy as follows:

"(1) Term for the implementation of democratic decision-making structures and socialist economic forms within the capitalist production relations (including by expanding the economic sectors already in state hands, taking over certain companies and branches that are directly of public interest in state hands, establishing inter-company economic planning, extensive co-determination ). The term comes from the theoretical discussion in social democracy and trade unions in the 1920s. (2) Today in the socio-political debate mostly synonymous with co-determination. "

The unionist and political scientist Fritz Vilmar defines economic democracy as follows:

"Economic democracy is the epitome of all economic structures and processes through which democratic decisions take the place of autocratic decisions that are legitimized by the participation of those economically affected and / or the democratic state."

chronology

Weimar Republic

The demand for the democratization of the economy was a programmatic demand of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB) in the 1920s. Its theoretical basis was the theory of organized capitalism formulated by the social democrat Rudolf Hilferding , a theory that turned away from orthodox Marxism and laid the foundations for social democratic reformism .

The program designed by Fritz Naphtali in collaboration with leading academics associated with the trade unions and social democracy (including Fritz Baade , Rudolf Hilferding , Ernst Nölting , Hugo Sinzheimer ) was conceived as an intermediate stage on the way to socialism. As Naphtali explained at the Hamburg trade union congress in 1928 in his lecture "The Realization of Economic Democracy", one could already begin with a gradual democratization of the economy, since capitalism "can also be bent before it is broken". The program, which Naphtali had compiled in a book, was submitted to the delegates of the trade union day for a vote. It is structured as follows:

  • Chapter I: The Democratization of the Economy
  • Chapter II: The Democratization of the Organs of State Economic Policy
  • III. Chapter: The democratization of the employment relationship
  • Chapter IV: The Democratization of Education. Breaking the educational monopoly
  • Chapter V: The present demands of the democratization of the economy on the way to socialism

In the extensive first chapter, which makes up almost two thirds of the book, the planned forms of a " socialization of capital" ( cartels , syndicates , trusts ) and the democratic self-governing organs of economic management as well as the non-capitalist forms of property (public companies, consumer cooperatives , trade union companies) presented. In them the historical tendencies towards an organized capitalism (Hilferding) find their expression.

Chapter II, which is only a few pages long, describes the changed position of the trade unions in the state since the First World War. Based on the so-called auxiliary service law of December 1916 and the central working group between trade unions and employers decided in 1918, the official recognition of the trade unions as legitimate representatives of their members by the state and employers is emphasized and their corporate representation in numerous economic policy councils, committees and chambers (e.g. Reichswirtschaftsrat , Administrative Council of the Reichspost, Central Committee of the Reichsbank) interpreted as a conquered "right of participation in economic development".

The III. Chapter, probably written by the labor lawyer Hugo Sinzheimer, is of central importance in his analysis for the topic. The development and significance of the democratization of the employment relationship are described in three sections . The first section outlines the development from property law through the law of obligations to labor law , which was or is applied to the worker as the seller of his labor . The second section deals with the participation of the trade unions in social policy , in particular participation in the self-governing bodies of social insurance (health, pension, miners' union and unemployment insurance) and employment agencies . In the third section, “company democracy” is discussed with the newly created works councils . Their task in the social and economic area is the "implementation and monitoring" of the collective bargaining norms. Because of their subordinate position, they could not "become the pioneers of a new economic order like the trade unions".

Following the explanations in Chapter IV about breaking the educational monopoly by expanding the public education system, Chapter V lists current demands of the trade unions:

1. the structuring of labor law and social labor protection law, 2. the expansion and structuring of self-administration of social insurance, 3. a planned wage policy , 4. securing and expanding the rights of works councils, 5. equal representation of the workers in all economic and political bodies 6. the control of the monopolies and cartels with the full cooperation of the trade unions, 7. reform of the self-governing bodies in mining and the amalgamation of industries into self-governing bodies, 8. the structuring of commercial enterprises in public hands, 9. the planned production promotion in agriculture Promotion of cooperatives, 10. Support for consumer societies and their own production, 11. Development of own trade union businesses, 12. Further steps to break through the educational monopoly.

The overwhelming majority of the delegates to the Hamburg Congress supported this program. The chairman of the ADGB, Theodor Leipart , emphasized that employees should not only be “citizens with equal rights, but also economic citizens with equal rights”. However, the program demands met with massive rejection from employers. The spokesmen for the communist trade unionists, who had still rallied in the revolutionary trade union opposition within the ADGB, called it “a crime against the working class” to spread “economic democratic illusions”.

Post-war Germany

After the establishment of the German Trade Union Confederation in 1949, the unions took up the idea of ​​economic democracy again (calls for economic democracy were already being made in the bizone during the November strike in 1948). As a justification they cited: “The experiences of the years 1918 to 1933 have shown that formal political democracy is not sufficient to realize a real democratic social order. The democratization of political life must therefore be supplemented by the democratization of the economy. ”The DGB program for the“ reorganization of the economy ”was a synonym for the democratization of the economy and“ was in the tradition of discussions about economic democracy in the Weimar period ". However, it differed significantly from the conception of economic democracy . The basic demands made in the Munich program of 1949 were:

  • I. An economic policy which, while preserving the dignity of free people, ensures the full employment of all those willing to work, the most expedient deployment of all economic productive forces and the covering of the economically important needs.
  • II. Co-determination of the organized employees in all personal, economic and social questions of economic management and organization.
  • III. Transfer of key industries to common ownership, in particular mining, the iron and steel industry, large-scale chemistry, the energy industry, the most important transport facilities and credit institutions.
  • IV. Social justice through the appropriate participation of all working people in the total economic return and the provision of sufficient livelihoods for those unable to work due to old age, disability or illness.
  • Such economic policy formation and economic management requires central economic planning so that private selfishness does not triumph over the needs of the economy as a whole.

Socialization of the key industries, economic participation and economic planning were the three pillars of the “economic policy principles” of the Munich program. Behind these principles stood the notion of a “mixed economy”, an economic order that sought a “ third way ” between capitalism and communism. The economic policy spokesman for the DGB, Viktor Agartz , spoke of a "new economic democracy". In the situation at the time, this program was seen as an alternative to the ordoliberal conception of the social market economy .

Current debate

Of the central program items of economic democracy (1928) and the reorganization of the economy (1949), only employee participation proved to be an enforceable demand. It is currently the most important instrument for democratizing the economy.

There are three forms of co-determination in the Federal Republic of Germany: inter-company, company-related and company-based co-determination. Inter-company co-determination can be found in particular in the self-governing bodies of social insurance and labor administration (e.g. Federal Employment Agency ). Corporate co-determination exists in three different forms: as parity co-determination, as it was established in 1951 for the coal and steel industry, through quasi-equal co-determination under the Co-Determination Act of 1976 (applies to companies with over 2,000 employees) up to one-third participation (applies for companies with 500 to 2,000 employees). The third level of co-determination, the operational level in the form of works councils , applies to all companies with more than 5 permanent employees.

The development of co-determination was also the subject of government commissions. A first government commission was convened in 1967, which, under the direction of Kurt Biedenkopf, stated in its results report from 1970 that the coal and steel co-determination had by no means had a negative effect on the profitability and profitability of the company. The Codetermination Commission established in 2005 came to a similar conclusion.

The DGB chairman Reiner Hoffmann announced at the Berlin DGB congress in 2014 an “offensive for co-determination”.

The Ver.di union has set up a “Working Group on Economic Democracy” to discuss and develop concepts for the renewal of economic democracy. An impulse paper has been available since the beginning of 2015, which the delegates at the next trade union congress will discuss.

literature

Original text and sources

  • Fritz Naphtali (Ed.): Economic Democracy. Your essence, path and goal . Berlin 1928. (Reprint: Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-434-45021-1 )
  • ADGB (1928): Resolution of the ADGB Congress 1928 in Hamburg on "The Realization of Economic Democracy". In: Michael Schneider (Ed.): Brief history of the trade unions. Your development in Germany from the beginning until today. Dietz, Bonn 2000, pp. 524-525 (Document 16).
  • DGB (1949): Economic policy principles of the German trade union federation from October 1949. In: Michael Schneider (Hrsg.): Brief history of the trade unions. Your development in Germany from the beginning until today. Dietz, Bonn 2000, pp. 544-550 (Document 24).
  • Economic democracy . In: Salomon Schwarz: Handbook of the German Trade Union Congresses (Congresses of the General German Trade Union Confederation) . Publishing company of the General German Trade Union Federation, Berlin 1930, pp. 406–425.

Basic literature

Further literature

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry Economic Democracy . In: Werner Fuchs-Heinritz , Rüdiger Laufmann, Otthein Rammstedt , Hanns Wienold (eds.): Lexicon of Sociology . 3. Edition. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1994 ISBN 3-531-11417-4 , p. 747.
  2. ^ Fritz Vilmar: Economic Democracy - Target Concept of an Alternative Economic Policy. Critical balance sheet and topicality after 40 years . @Website of the Global Labor Institute - German. Retrieved March 24, 2015
  3. ↑ Michael Schneider : ups, downs and crises. The unions in the Weimar Republic from 1918 to 1933 . In: Klaus Tenfelde , Klaus Schönhoven , Michael Schneider, Detlef JK Peukert: History of the German trade unions from the beginning to 1945 . Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-7663-0861-0 , pp. 279-389, here: p. 379.
  4. ↑ Michael Schneider: ups, downs and crises. The unions in the Weimar Republic from 1918 to 1933 . In: Klaus Tenfelde, Klaus Schönhoven, Michael Schneider, Detlef JK Peukert: History of the German trade unions from the beginning to 1945 . Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1987, pp. 279–389, here: p. 379.
  5. ^ Fritz Naphtali: Economic Democracy . Your essence, path and goal. European Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1966, p. 195.
  6. ^ Fritz Naphtali: Economic Democracy . Your essence, path and goal. European Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1966, p. 137.
  7. ^ Fritz Naphtali: Economic Democracy . Your essence, path and goal. European Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1966, p. 162 f.
  8. ^ Fritz Naphtali: Economic Democracy . Your essence, path and goal. European Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1966, pp. 184–186.
  9. ↑ Michael Schneider: ups, downs and crises. The unions in the Weimar Republic from 1918 to 1933 . In: Klaus Tenfelde, Klaus Schönhoven, Michael Schneider, Detlef JK Peukert: History of the German trade unions from the beginning to 1945 . Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1987, pp. 279-389, here: pp. 380 f.
  10. ↑ Jörg Roesler: The Bizone on November 12, 1948 - A general strike that wasn't allowed to be. In: Friday. November 7, 2003, accessed June 17, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Nelli Tügel: The Myth of the Federal Republic (New Germany). New Germany, accessed June 17, 2020 .
  12. ↑ To the direction of the economy: The November strike 1948. In: OXI Blog. November 12, 2018, accessed June 17, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Protocol of the German Federation of Trade Unions, Munich 12. – 14. October 1949 . Bund Verlag, Cologne 1950, p. 322.
  14. ↑ Werner Müller: The establishment of the DGB, the struggle for co-determination, programmatic failure and the transition to union pragmatism . In: Hans-Otto Hemmer, Kurt Thomas Schmitz (Hrsg.): History of the trade unions in the Federal Republic of Germany. From the beginning until today . Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7663-3153-1 , pp. 85–147, here: p. 87.
  15. ↑ Quoted from Walther Müller-Jentsch: Unions and Social Market Economy since 1945. Reclam, Stuttgart 2011, p. 53 f.
  16. ↑ Werner Müller: The establishment of the DGB, the struggle for co-determination, programmatic failure and the transition to union pragmatism . In: Hans-Otto Hemmer, Kurt Thomas Schmitz (Hrsg.): History of the trade unions in the Federal Republic of Germany. From the beginning until today . Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1990, pp. 85–147, here: pp. 95 f.
  17. ^ Michael R. Krätke: Directed economy and new economic democracy. Viktor Agartz's ideas about the reorganization of the economy . In: Reinhard Bispinck, Thorsten Schulten, Peeter Raane (eds.): Economic democracy and expansive wage policy. On the topicality of Viktor Agartz . VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2008, pp. 82-106.
  18. ^ On this controversy, cf. Walther Müller-Jentsch: Economic Reorganization versus Social Market Economy. In: ders .: Trade unions and the social market economy since 1945. Reclam, Stuttgart 2011, pp. 51–76.
  19. ↑ Economy and Democracy - Democracy Report 2011 (PDF; 677 kB)