War charges
Consequential war costs are those costs which belligerent states have to bear after the end of a war .
The war costs are divided into internal and external war costs. Internal costs resulting from the war are payments to one's own citizens, external costs resulting from the war are payments to other states or foreign persons and organizations.
External war costs include, for example, reparations or occupation costs . Internal charges following the war are, in particular, pensions for war victims (for details of German war victims pensions, see Federal Welfare Act ). In Germany, after the Second World War, the cost of reparations and the equalization of burdens were added as major items.
In Germany in 1949, Article 120 of the Basic Law stipulated that the costs resulting from the war were to be borne by the federal government.
In the structure of the federal budget (function plan), which is systematized according to task areas, the damage caused by the war can be found under the item “Social benefits for the consequences of war and political events”.
Burdens following the war are reduced by paying off war-related liabilities and the death of war victims over time. The share of consequential damage caused by war in the federal budget fell from around 10% in 1950 to less than 2% in 2009. A “ peace dividend ” is created.
literature
- Wolfgang Streeck and Daniel Mertens: Politics in Deficit - Austerity as a Fiscal Policy Regime, MPIfG Discussion Paper 10/5, 2010, ISSN 1864-4325 (Internet), online
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ For details and delimitations see: Ulrich Häde: Finanzausgleich: the distribution of tasks, expenses and income in the law of the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union, Volume 19 of Jus Publicum Series, ISSN 0941-0503 , 1996, ISBN 978-3-16 -146636-6 , pp. 97 ff., Online
- ↑ Streeck / Mertens, p. 33
- ↑ Streeck / Mertens, p. 17