Burkhard Wehner

Burkhard Wehner (born April 26, 1946 in Hamburg ) is a German political and social scientist, economist and novelist. He developed concepts for the further development of democracy and the welfare state , so u. a. the neocracy and the citizens' money concept . His contributions to economics include an interdisciplinary labor market theory and an alternative concept of monetary stabilization. In addition to book publications, Wehner also publishes essays and articles on his own websites.

Wehner sees himself as a fundamental reformer. He now only assigns the conventional concept of democracy a limited period of validity. According to Wehner's conviction, an evolutionary system change is imminent, the historical significance of which is comparable to the transition from the enlightened monarchy to conventional democracy.

Life

After graduating from high school in Hamburg, Wehner went to study in the USA for three years (BA Amherst College) in 1965. His main subjects there were philosophy, literature and economics. After working for a long time in business, he studied economics and political science at the University of Hamburg. Wehner has worked as a freelance author, lecturer and consultant since 1988. He lives and works in the Hamburg area, most recently in Horst in Holstein.

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In his publications, Wehner has developed concepts for the evolutionary further development and overcoming of conventional democracy. These concepts aim at a technically and morally more competent, more transparent, citizen-oriented and meaningful state system. Wehner connects this u. a. with new procedural proposals for domestic and international conflict resolution and with the draft of a new economic and social order. His fiction works are also based on topics of long-term social and political awareness development.

Concept development democracy

In The Disasters of Democracy. Wehner presented his first fundamental criticism of the conventional conception of democracy about the necessary reorganization of political procedures (1991). The basis was the diagnosis that the political actors of the existing democracy are increasingly overwhelmed and that the efficiency of politics is therefore falling further and further behind the necessities. On this basis, Wehner developed the concept of so-called multi-lane democracy (division state).

According to Wehner, conventional democracy can essentially be nothing other than a party state. In this form of government, parties and party politicians are forced to claim responsibility and problem-solving skills for politics as a whole. In an increasingly complex political process, this claim is becoming increasingly illusory. Parties and party politicians are therefore forced to play a role in which they can largely only simulate the necessary political expertise. The phenomenon of growing political fatigue is explained not least by the growing awareness of citizens in this context.

The model of multi-lane democracy is intended to make parties and politicians who are responsible for politics as a whole dispensable. In multi-lane democracies, all-responsible parties and state organs can gradually be wrested from political areas of responsibility and these can then be transferred to more specialized organizations.

In the nation state, solidarity state, efficiency state. New State Boundaries for New State Types (1992), from the concept of multi-lane democracy, Wehner developed an understanding of the state that is detached from the idea of ​​the nation state, according to which citizens can largely freely determine state borders and their nationality in innovative procedures. Wehner describes this new dimension of civil freedom as freedom of political association.

In 1993, Wehner's The State on Probation was a preliminary conclusion to the development of the concept of forms of government . About dealing with a frozen political order . It was shown under which institutional conditions a multi-lane democracy can arise and develop further. Wehner calls the procedure for this the iterative legitimation procedure, the institution to be created a permanent constitutional council.

A summary and expansion of these basic ideas took place in 1995 in The logic of politics and the misery of the economy . In it, the concept of multi-lane democracy was summed up in important points, located in the history of ideas and supplemented, so u. a. new procedures for citizen participation (lay parliament) and the instrument of the formal protest vote.

In award of peace. Wehner then explained alternatives to the "humanitarian" war (1999) using the specific example of the Kosovo war, which new non-armed alternatives for action arise for peace policy on the basis of the concepts of political freedom of association and citizens' money (see below) that he developed.

The concept of multi-lane democracy was eventually used in The Other Democracy. Between utopia and reformist patchwork (2002), theoretically deepened, concretized and presented in contemporary contexts.

In his online publications, Wehner later (2003/2004) introduced the collective term neocracy for the concepts of multi-track democracy and freedom of political association . In 2006 Wehner exhibited in From Democracy to Neocracy. Evolution of the state, (r) evolution of thought, the emergence, the historical context and the long-term development potential of the neocracy concept again in a concentrated form.

In Freedom, Peace, and Secession. New Dimensions of Democracy (2020) (German short version: The political logic of secession. On a new paradigm of peace policy (2018)), in addition to the meaning of the concept of neocracy, it is also explained.

Wehner has continuously presented further writings on overcoming the party state, on the concept of neocracy , on neocratic constitution and on contemporary historical issues on his internet platforms (see below under "Web Links").

Concept development for the economy and the welfare state

As an economist and welfare state theorist, Wehner wrote a three-volume work on the labor market and welfare state at the end of the 1980s : a diagnosis of the behavior of labor market participants ( unemployment in the welfare state ), an interdisciplinary labor market theory ( the limits of the labor market / the labor market in the welfare state ) and a social state theory based on it ( The New Welfare State ). In the latter - also under the name legitimation money - the citizen's money system was developed, a u. a. Socio-philosophical, fiscal policy, stability policy and later also population policy based follow-up and counter model to the so-called negative income tax . The concept of the unconditional basic income agrees with this in the basics. The citizen benefit system was also founded in terms of labor market and risk theory as a full employment concept ( The New Welfare State ).

In subsequent political discussions, the term “Bürgergeld” was also used in meanings that are more closely related to the concept of negative income tax. Wehner therefore later distinguished between "real" and "fake" citizen money.

In The Long Farewell to Socialism , published in 1990 , Wehner showed which alternatives to simply adopting Western economic and social orders were open to post-socialist societies at the time, at least in theory. He put u. a. the method of voucher or voucher privatization of socialist state property, which was later also referred to as coupon privatization or check privatization and was taken up in Czechoslovakia and successor states of the Soviet Union. In this context, the Bürgergeld model was also presented in book form for the first time.

In addition to The Long Farewell to Socialism , Wehner subsequently presented further economic analyzes of current events.

In Das Fiasko im Osten (1991) he analyzed the economic and social policy options of reunification. He pointed to z. Sometimes deliberately appearing false assumptions in real politics and policy advice, assessed the costs of reunification that could be expected over decades and presented a concrete alternative concept.

In 1994 Germany appeared stagnated . In it, too, misdiagnoses by economic opinion leaders on developments in the unified Germany were analyzed, combined with the prognosis that Germany would lose its lead in economic development over other Western European countries in the foreseeable future.

In 1995, in The Logic of Politics and the Misery of the Economy , Wehner presented a fundamental criticism of the prevailing - orthodox and heterodox - economic thought traditions and methods of analysis as well as the institutional conditions of the scientific community.

This volume also proposed new institutional structures for fiscal policy (independent fiscal council) and for monetary policy (independent currency and economic council).

In addition, a new type of stability policy model of central banks was presented: the so-called fixed interest rate model, in which the interest rate for a certain long-term investment form is kept constant through a credible influence on inflation expectations. According to Wehner, this concept also gives rise to new ideas about the delimitation of so-called optimal currency areas.

This new model of monetary policy was translated into A New Monetary Policy. Fixed interest rate, stable economy and secure currency (2020) presented in more detail.

Finally, in The Logic of Politics and the Misery of the Economy , a draft of a new tax system was presented - already outlined by Wehner in his early state-theoretical publications - which is based exclusively on flexible, earmarked taxes.

In 2017, Wehner featured in The Political Logic of the Unconditional Basic Income. For the citizen money in the 22nd century, a concept for the intergenerational political process was proposed, in which a sustainable citizen money system could be realized in the societal consensus. This concept was developed in Universal Basic Income and the Reshaping of Democracy. Towards a Citizens' Scholarship in a New Political Order (2019) further elaborated.

Fiction

Wehner's works of fiction belong to the genre of the narrated argument, so they are not novels in the conventional sense. His two previous releases in this genre, turn of the millennium. Novels about democracy and Kafu have the appearance of books for young people, but are aimed more at adult readers. They try to get out of the frozen thought that is familiar on social and political issues by telling stories about unusual thinkers. In her review of the turn of the millennium in Spiegel SPEZIAL 10/1998, the reviewer Stephanie von Malchow attests that Burkhard Wehner is "deservedly considered a pioneer of a new democratic debate". In the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on May 22, 2002, the reviewer Gerda Wurzenberger criticized the book Kafu as being undynamic and unfocused . She complains about the lack of a common thread and realizes that the book does not produce a harmonious whole.

In 2017, The Drama of the 21st Century. Spiegel archivist Schmidt looks back , and Wehner designs - embedded in a narrative framework - a scenario of the major political lines of development up to the beginning of the fourth quarter of the century

Fonts

Books

• The long farewell to socialism. Outline of a new economic and social order. Anton Hain, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-445-08563-3 .
• The boundaries of the labor market. Outline of a new employment theory. Metropolis, Marburg 1991, ISBN 3-926570-37-7 .
• The fiasco in the east. Ways out of a failed economic and social policy. Metropolis, Marburg 1991, ISBN 3-926570-43-1 .
• The disasters of democracy. About the necessary reorganization of political procedures. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1992, ISBN 3-534-80133-4 . (Short version for download)
• The new welfare state. Full employment, income equity and government debt relief. 1st edition. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1992, ISBN 3-531-12311-4 .
• Nation state, solidarity state, efficiency state. New state borders for new state types. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1992, ISBN 3-534-80139-3 .
• The state on probation. About dealing with a frozen political order. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1993, ISBN 3-534-80155-5 . (Short version for download)
• Germany is stagnating. From the east to the pan-German economic crisis. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1994, ISBN 3-534-80165-2 .
• The logic of politics and the misery of the economy. Basic elements of a new state and social theory. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1995, ISBN 3-534-12799-4 .
• The new welfare state. Draft of a new economic and social order. 2nd, completely revised edition. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1997, ISBN 3-531-13079-X .
• Turn of the millennium. Novel about democracy. Anrich, Weinheim 1998, ISBN 3-89106-380-6 .
• Award of Peace. Alternatives to "humanitarian" war. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1999, ISBN 3-531-13421-3 .
• Unemployment in the welfare state. A problem diagnosis. BoD, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-8311-1954-6 .
• The labor market in the welfare state. A functional analysis. (New version of: The Limits of the Labor Market), BoD, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-8311-2244-X .
• The other democracy. Between utopia and reformist patchwork. Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-8244-4480-1 .
• Kafu . Novel. Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim 2002, ISBN 3-407-80888-7 .
• From democracy to neocracy. Evolution of the state, (r) evolution of thought. Merus 2006, ISBN 3-939519-28-6 . (Online version for download)
• The drama of the 21st century. SPIEGEL archivist Schmidt looks back . BoD, Norderstedt 2017, ISBN 978-3-7431-6232-7 .
• The political logic of the unconditional basic income. About citizen money in the 22nd century . Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2018, ISBN 978-3-658-20226-2 .
• The political logic of secession. Towards a new paradigm of peace politics. Springer VS, Wiesbaden 2018, ISBN 978-3-658-23176-7 .
• Universal Basic Income and the Reshaping of Democracy. Towards a Citizens' Scholarship in a New Political Order . Springer, 2019. ISBN 978-3-030-05827-2 .
• Freedom, Peace, and Secession. New Dimensions of Democracy. Springer, 2020. ISBN 978-3-030-39522-3 .
• A new logic of monetary policy. Fixed interest, stable economy, safe currency . Springer 2020. ISBN 978-3-658-29364-2 .

Articles (selection)

• Organized amateurism or a democratic culture of experts? Citizen participation in the end times of political generalism. In: Ansgar Klein, Rainer Schmalz-Bruns (Hrsg.): Political participation and civic engagement in Germany. Nomos, Baden-Baden 1997, ISBN 3-7890-5132-2 .
• Constructive system criticism. About the impassable terrain between utopia and reformist patchwork. In: Richard Saage, Gunnar Berg (ed.): Between Triumph and Crisis. On the state of liberal democracy after the collapse of the dictatorships in Eastern Europe. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1998, ISBN 3-8100-1794-9 .
• Is Democracy Fit for Basic Income? Toward a Hybrid Income Guarantee for Future Generations . In: Political Activism and Basic Income Guarantee. International Experiences and Perspectives Past, Present and Near Future . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham 2020.

For further articles see u. under web links.

Literature (selection)

• Hans Hugo Klein : The multi-lane democracy. In: Klaus Letzgus u. a. (Ed.): For Law and State. Beck, Munich 1994.

Web links

• Literature by and about Burkhard Wehner in the catalog of the German National Library
• Wehner's essays
• neokratieverfassungs.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Short biography at Perlentaucher. Retrieved July 1, 2013 . 
2. ↑ Incitement to reflection. A novel about democracy