Eco-social market economy

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The eco -social market economy , also ecological-social market economy or ecological market economy , is an economic , environmental and socio-political objective that includes sustainable management and environmental protection as political categories in the social market economy . It sees itself as a further development of the social market economy and should bring about a balance between economic and ecological goals by trying to enforce environmental protection with market-based means, instead of exclusively with prohibitions and requirements.

theory

Until the 1970s, the natural environment was commonly viewed as an unlimited resource. Since the report “ The Limits to Growth ” by the Club of Rome , however, it has been known that mankind lives from the “capital” of natural resources and not from the “interest” on the income that nature gives us . Regarding the environment economically as a free and public good , this is the cause of undesirable ecological developments. Therefore, an integration of ecological sustainability into the entire economic and social system , especially with regard to intergenerational justice , is overdue. The foundation of the eco-social economic order is an efficient, innovative market economy . The other two pillars are social justice and ecological responsibility. Social equilibrium is the prerequisite for social consensus, and ecological sustainability for the survival of civilization par excellence. Therefore a business ethic is necessary, which u. a. the Christian social teaching in the model are introduced.

The eco-social market economy sees itself as an ordoliberal concept that expressly refers to the social market economy , the achievements of which, however, are being undermined by globalization and which must therefore be further developed. On the basis of the alleged market failure , it distinguishes itself from economic policy concepts called “ market fundamentalist ” , which are accused of lacking the ability to keep the economy and social peace in balance. Socialist economic theories are also rejected because of their lack of efficiency .

By means of incentive taxes , stricter environmental liability and other control instruments , the external costs that an economy incurs due to the microeconomic usage calculation are to be included in the microeconomic cost accounting of the polluter. So environmental protection should become economically cheaper than environmental pollution . Specific demands are the creation of ecological cost truth (e.g. for common goods such as air, water and soil), enforcement of a strict polluter pays principle , enforcement of an ecological tax and ecologically oriented laws as well as clear product declarations with true and comparable information on the exploitation of workers, environmental destruction , child labor , Genetic engineering and hormonal use in food.

As an approach to achieve their objectives are the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations supported. In part, the concept has already been successfully implemented in the social and economic order of the EU .

In 2019, Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen again and clearly committed to an eco-social market economy.

Basics and pillar model

In order to use existing resources ideally, the market forces that ensure the most effective use should be used. The prerequisite for this is that the good environment has a price . This makes production methods that pollute the environment less profitable. The ecological-social market economy, for which the Foundation for Ecology and Democracy eV is particularly committed, means that with the "dynamism of the market in accordance with the polluter pays principle, more ecological decisions are made" - said the chairman of the Foundation for Ecology and Democracy e. V., Hans-Joachim Ritter.

There are various ways of evaluating the environment using market prices. For example, one can issue a limited number of licenses for pollution that can be traded like stocks (environmental licenses). Also environmental taxes such as the CO 2 - / power control (power control / Ecotax) are MBI environmental policy. Such a tax reform can be revenue-neutral in order not to let the entire tax burden increase. The eco- taxes , which are then referred to as incentive taxes , are redistributed to around one third using the eco-bonus principle:

  • as a climate bonus in the form of grants for private, more energy-efficient devices etc. directly per capita to consumers (affordable technology change),
  • as a social bonus to the recipients of transfer payments (in the same amount), so that they do not suffer from rising energy prices,
  • as an employment bonus (job bonus) to the company for each job subject to social security contributions, in the form of a reduction in social security contributions.

An eco bonus with regard to energy taxes is also called energy money. In some countries (Denmark) there is the green check , or it is offset against the health insurance contribution ( steering tax (Switzerland) ).

In the ecological market economy model, a basic distinction is made between environmental use on the one hand and energy consumption on the other:

First pillar

The central idea of ​​the first pillar is to quantify the use of the environmental factor and to transfer it to a market as a tradable “product”. The environment should no longer be available to the manufacturing industry free of charge as a free good, but should become a scarce good through state total quantitative restrictions. The environmental factor is given what characterizes all scarce goods: a price.

Second pillar

The second pillar is the taxation of energy and fuel consumption. This tax, which is particularly important for recording the private sector, makes the consumption of secondary energy sources (electricity, mineral oil, heating oil, etc.) more expensive. It becomes clear that a fundamental distinction must be made between private and corporate environmental consumption.

history

The term ecological-social market economy goes back to scientific research by Hans Christoph Binswanger (St. Gallen) in the 1970s and 1980s. With his several years of research on the subject of ways out of the prosperity trap - strategies against unemployment and environmental crises and his book publications, such as work without environmental destruction , money and magic , money and nature , he laid the basis for the ecological tax reform and for an ecologically and socially oriented market economy. The Ecological Democratic Party  (ÖDP), founded in 1982 as a federal party, was the first German party to take up these ideas under its chairman Herbert Gruhl .

The term was coined in Austria in the 1980s, when after the Zwentendorf referendum in  1978 and even more the events of the occupation of the Hainburger Au in  1984 and the Konrad Lorenz referendum in  1985, and a broad new environmental awareness among the population, a new orientation of the paradigms was worked out which still form the basis of Austria's energy, economic and environmental policy today. The then environment spokesman Walter Heinz Inger spoke (two months after Hainburg) on an Environmental Study as part of Forum 90, the People's Party of the " social market economy on their way to an eco-social market economy." The ÖVP was then opposition of the red-blue government Sinowatz . As a battle cry against the social democratic-liberal economic policy these days, but also against the anxiety of the business-oriented forces and the workers against ecology as an obstacle in the economic progress and threats to job security , and social peace, the expression still found especially among Christian Democrat and conservative Politicians supporters. The fact that the conservative party was the first to react to the concerns of the Greens , who gained strength after the Hainburg events (first mandate from the National Council in 1986), is an Austrian specific feature on which a closeness between conservatism and the green alternative is based to this day, in which the agricultural interest groups of the former are based to synergy with the ecological concerns of the latter. Upper Austria, for example, has had a black-green coalition since 2003 , and organic agriculture has been part of Austria's political program since the black governments around Wolfgang Schüssel . As of 2014, four out of nine countries have had a black-green government. The commonality is expressed in the fact that Austria has a share of almost 20% organic farmers . All large grocery chains have their own strongly positioned organic brands in the medium-price sector (15% market share of organic products in total), so the eco-social market economy is already part of everyday life in the food supply. The energy industry (for many years 75% share of renewable energy) and the driving job-creating economic sectors in Austria, tourism as well as research and development - central for a small country with little large-scale industry - are dependent on the ecological idea and have been promoting this for a good two decades ( 5% share of green jobs in the sense of the  word)

At the European level, the European Democratic Union committed itself to this model in 1991, which was soon marginalized in day-to-day political business due to the economic crisis at the time. The Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), with Josef Riegler , Austrian Minister of Agriculture and later Vice Chancellor, and Franz Fischler , subsequent Minister of Agriculture and at times EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, refer to the eco-social market economy.

In Germany, the scientist Franz Josef Radermacher particularly called for the eco-social market economy to be pursued as a guiding principle of global economic policy. Also CDU -Politiker as former federal environment minister and later Executive Director of the United Nations (Environment Program UNEP ) Klaus Toepfer , Friedbert Pflueger . or Heiner Geißler see the eco-social market economy as the regulatory response to the challenges of global economic development. The concept can be found to some extent in some European green parties . Among the founders of the Forum Ecological-Social Market Economy is one of Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker ( SPD ). Since the year 2000 September 12th has been the day of the ecological-social market economy . This day is a reminder that ecology should be implemented more in a market-based way. Since 1994 and the addition in 2002, one can say that the eco-social market economy is expressed in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany through Article 20a (“The state protects the natural foundations of life within the framework of the constitutional order through legislation, also in responsibility for future generations and in accordance with the law and justice through the executive and the judiciary ”).

The Global Marshall Plan Initiative in particular , whose Austrian coordinator is Josef Riegler, has made a global eco-social market economy its concern.

See also

literature

  • Peter Eichhorn (Ed.): Eco-social market economy. Goals and ways. Wiesbaden, Gabler, 1995. ISBN 3-409-13778-5 .
  • Global Marshall Plan Initiative (Ed.): World in Balance. Future opportunity eco-social market economy. Hamburg, 2004. ISBN 3-9809723-1-3 .
  • Heinrich Böll Foundation (ed.): Green market economy . Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-927760-69-1 http://www.boell.de/downloads/Reihe_Wirtschaft_Soziales_Band1_Gruene_Marktwirtschaft_2007.pdf (link not available).
  • Uwe Jens (Ed.): The conversion. From the command economy to the eco-social market economy. Baden-Baden, Nomos-Verlag, 1991. ISBN 3-7890-2469-4
  • Christoph Moser: Constitutional framework conditions for realizing the concept of the eco-social market economy using the example of agriculture. Innsbruck, Research Institute for Alpine Land u. Forestry at the University of Innsbruck, 1993 (Green Forum, Vol. 11)
  • Franz Josef Radermacher : Balance or Destruction. Eco-social market economy as the key to global sustainable development. Vienna, Ökosoziales Forum Europa , 3rd edition 2004. ISBN 3-7040-1950-X
  • Franz Josef Radermacher: Global Marshall Plan. A planetary contract for a global eco-social market economy. Vienna, Eco- Social Forum Europe, 2004. ISBN 3-9501869-2-1
  • Franz Josef Radermacher: Shaping globalization. The new central task of politics. The work of the Federal Association for Economic Development and Foreign Trade for a global framework for an eco-social market economy. Berlin, Terra Media Verlag, 2006. ISBN 3-89483-110-3
  • Franz Josef Radermacher, Josef Riegler, Hubert Weiger: Eco-social market economy - history, program and unique selling points of a sustainable global economic system . Munich, oekom Verlag 2011. ISBN 978-3-86581-259-9 .
  • Josef Riegler (ed.): Answers for the future. Eco-social market economy . Political Academy of the Austrian People's Party. Vienna, Publishing House for History and Politics, 1990.
  • Josef Riegler: Eco-social market economy. Thinking and acting in cycles. Edited by the Styrian Eco-Social Forum. Graz, Stocker, 2nd edition 1997. ISBN 3-7020-0732-6 .
  • Josef Riegler: Eco-social market economy - A contribution to intergenerational equity ( PDF file, 21 kB ; on globalmarshallplan.org)
  • Rolf Schröder: Beyond the market. Approaches to eco-social economy from a neo-libertarian point of view. Frankfurt am Main, Haag + Herchen, 1992. ISBN 3-89228-759-7
  • Ingeborg Stadler: Eco-social market economy. A new regulatory alternative? Graz, Karl-Franzens-University, Economic Institute 1991.
  • Lutz Wicke , Lothar de Maizière , Thomas de Maizière : Eco-social market economy for East and West. The way out of the economic and environmental crisis. Munich, dtv 1990. ISBN 3-423-05809-9
  • Ulrich Schneider-Wedding: Ecological-social market economy. How to get rid of the compulsion to grow. Prosperity for everyone - worldwide and sustainable! . Marburg, Büchner-Verlag, 2020. ISBN 978-3-96317-192-5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Josef Riegler: Eco-Social Market Economy - A Contribution to Generational Justice , p. 2. ( Memento from June 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Detlef Wehling: Environmental policy in the social market economy , in: Günther Rüther (Hrsg.): Ecological and social market economy . Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , Bonn 1997, p. 221.
  3. ↑ a b c Franz Josef Radermacher: Global Marshall Plan - Why market fundamentalism makes the world poor , in: World in Balance , p. 111.
  4. ↑ Uwe Jens : The competitive order as the core of an eco-social market economy and the long-term safeguarding of effective competition, in: Uwe Jens (Ed.): The conversion. From the command economy to the eco-social market economy , p. 213.
  5. ^ Josef Riegler: Eco-Social Market Economy - A Contribution to Generational Justice , p. 3. ( Memento from June 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ); Josef Riegler: The Global Marshall Plan for a worldwide eco-social market economy , in: World in Balance , p. 53.
  6. ↑ Alliance 90 / The Greens: Sustainable business for sustainable prosperity - setting the framework for the socio-ecological market economy . 2019.
  7. ↑ Forum Ecological-Social Market Economy (FÖS) / Green Budget Germany: Socially designed ecological financial reform , key issues paper, November 7, 2008. ( (PDF; 197 kB) )
  8. ↑ ÖVP environmental protection quete ( memento from January 14, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  9. ↑ The fact that Austria has had a joint ministry for environmental and economic agendas, the Ministry of Life ( Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management ) , for 15 years under ÖVP and SPÖ , is symptomatic.
  10. ↑ Austria has a world champion. Austria is the undisputed world champion when it comes to organic farming. Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, bmlfuw.gv.at > Land> Biologische Landwirtschaft .
  11. ↑ Current market situation ( Memento from December 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , BIO Austria; Organic share is growing at a high level ( Memento from December 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , press release Arbeitsmarkt Austria, September 4, 2013, af ama-marketing.at; both accessed November 14, 2014.
  12. ↑ Because of the dominant hydropower; Renewable energy: high share of renewables in electricity generation in Austria ( memento of November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , oesterreichsenergie.at, undated, accessed November 14, 2014.
  13. ↑ EU definition, current estimates: 200,000 out of 4.3 million; green jobs in Austria ( memento from December 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) , bmlfuw.gv.at, accessed November 14, 2014.
  14. ↑ “It is our job as EDU to give the social market economy a further dimension: ecological objectives. They should transform the social market economy into an eco-social market economy. The parties united in the EDU want to be the driving force in the implementation of these principles in an international strategy for sustainable and environmentally compatible development. ”EDU, Bulletin 43, Report on Environmental Policy, 1991; quoted from Josef Riegler: The Global Marshall Plan for a worldwide eco-social market economy . In: World in Balance , p. 54.
  15. ^ So in the European program of the Austrian People's Party. ÖVP, July 9, 1993 cvce.eu , http://www.oevp.at/lopatka/index.aspx?pageid=36071 (link not available)
  16. ^ Josef Riegler: The Global Marshall Plan for a worldwide eco-social market economy . In: World in Balance , p. 55.
  17. ^ Karl Farmer: Contributions to the economic theoretical foundation of ecological and social regulatory policy, p. 3. LIT Verlag Berlin, Hamburg, Münster 2005. ISBN 3-8258-8444-9
  18. ↑ Martin Klesmann, Jan Thomsen: Pflüger wants the whole CDU for himself. In: Berliner Zeitung . September 5, 2008, accessed June 22, 2015 .
  19. ^ Report by Wirtschaftswoche from May 31, 2007 based on a report by the dpa .
  20. ↑ http://www.natur.de/scripts/basics/econews/basics.prg?nap=natur&a_no=18740&main=drucken (link not available)
  21. ↑ World in Balance , p. 119.