State interventionism

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State interventionism describes in a fundamentally market- ordered economy existing tendency of the state in the economy to intervene "to intervene" to.

General

It is primarily about measures that go beyond the design of the legal and economic framework conditions for economic activity ( regulatory policy ) and intervene in economic processes ( process policy ). State interventionism is justified by the fact that the market is not always able to realize certain economic and socio-political ideas (e.g. full employment).

history

In the economic liberalism of the 19th century , politics was largely limited to regulatory policy , economic policy was mainly made by lawyers (legal monopoly).

A number of historians tend to see the economic development from around 1870 as the beginning of the modern intervention and welfare state . Due to the initially limited scope and the lack of a systematic approach to the measures, no leap to a new system is seen, but rather a gradual transition due to the quantity of state interventions in an industrial society that is becoming more and more complex. The period between 1870 and World War I is known as the era of liberal state interventionism . During this time u. a. the concentration and centralization tendencies, monopolies , cartels and trusts socio-economic instability. As a reaction to the social question , German economists founded the Verein für Socialpolitik in 1873 . The association propagated state intervention with some success so that the state "protects the weak, lifts the lower classes". Most industrialized countries responded to the challenges, including a. with social policy and with protectionist trade policy .

In the course of the war economy in World War I and World War II, there was a temporary strong expansion of state economic control.

The world economic crisis from 1929 to 1939, which promoted a permanent qualitative expansion of state interventionism, had a lasting influence . In Germany, since the global economic crisis, with the Praekeynesians as well as the Ordoliberals, all relevant economic currents have been critically oriented towards the reality of the interventionist economic state. Interventionism was no longer rejected by ordoliberals either, but rather viewed as necessary in the form of liberal interventionism , which does not work against market development, but accelerates and cushions it. Finally, in the age of selective state interventionism , structural and procedural politics increasingly came to the fore. Since the increasing involvement of economists, there has now also been a systematic planning of economic policy instruments.

to form

Strictly speaking, there is no economic policy in a pure market economy (“free market economy”). In a central administration economy, the state and the economy are identical. In reality, these ideal-typical forms of economic order rarely occur. Almost all real economic systems are hybrid forms, i.e. market economies in which the state intervenes to a greater or lesser extent. The variants of economic policy interventionism that occur in reality can be classified according to their degree of intensity and macroeconomic orientation.

A distinction is made according to the degree of intensity:

  1. The market economy interventionism (also liberal interventionism) intervenes in individual markets in order to primarily provide adjustment assistance. The intervention is of a temporary nature and is intended to improve the functioning of the market. A certain correction of the income distribution can also be included here. Example: Concept of the social market economy
  2. In association economic interventionism, the state delegates economic policy tasks to business associations (auditing, compulsory cartels, marketing boards, etc.).
  3. The steering economic interventionism seeks to maintain structure against the market dynamics , z. B. for defense reasons. Examples: Support for the agricultural sector in industrialized countries, war economy

A distinction is made according to the macroeconomic orientation:

  1. Punctual or pragmatic interventionism : the state intervenes where the market mechanism does not work satisfactorily or when a result of the market mechanism is politically undesirable.
  2. Constructivist interventionism : The interventions are intended to steer market results in a direction planned ex ante . Examples: global control , planification

Others

The willingness to intervene in the economy by the state increases by leaps and bounds in times of an economic crisis , especially when large corporate units that are very important for a nation threaten to fail economically (“ too big to fail ”).

One example is the “crisis regulation through political cartel formation” in the crisis in the German steel industry in the Saar and Ruhr regions since 1975. In 2008/2009, the crisis in the US auto industry was an example.

For Hans Albert , the assessment of an intervention according to its alleged economic rationality or "efficiency" can be nothing more than a sham justification, since economics as a real science is unable to deliver value judgments .

According to C. Wright Mills , behind the dispute over state intervention vs. “Freedom of the economy” often the striving of the business elite to secure their own decision-making power and thereby shift the associated risks and consequential problems onto the state. For this reason, many companies and entrepreneurs claimed to be only interested in a free market economy, but this economic freedom could only be secured through state subsidies .

criticism

The term itself was coined by critics of such a basic economic policy orientation and thus implied a negative value accent from the start. The background is the idea of ​​a laissez-faire - liberalism , that the economy is a self-regulating process, whereby the intervention of the state can do nothing but harm. Ludwig von Mises argues that this would lead to a loss of welfare due to the misallocation of economic resources , since the steering function of prices formed on the market would be overridden. State interventions can lead to state failure or are already a consequence of state failure. The consequences of government intervention are seen, for example, from the following aspects:

  • Measures taken to solve a specific problem could also exacerbate it as a result of wrong incentives for the economy (cf. cobra effect ).
  • A single first state intervention in the economic process would result in ever expanding follow-up interventions in the economic system and ultimately an intervention spiral (see oil spill theorem ).
  • Imperfections in the market would cancel each other out, the second best solution would result. State interventions are therefore ineffective or even harmful (see antidote thesis )

See also

literature

chronological order

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See “State Interventionism ”, Brockhaus Encyclopedia, 21st completely revised edition, Volume 26.
  2. ↑ Duden Economy from A to Z: Basic knowledge for school and study, work and everyday life . 4th edition Mannheim: Bibliographisches Institut 2009. Licensed edition Bonn: Federal Agency for Civic Education 2009. Keyword: Interventionism
  3. ^ Willi Albers, Concise Dictionary of Economics , Volume 9, Gustav Fischer Verlag, 1982, ISBN 3-525-10260-7 , p. 192.
  4. ^ Rudolf Boch, State and Economy in the 19th Century , Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH, 2004, ISBN 3-486-55712-2 , p. 91 f.
  5. ↑ cf. Tobias ten Brink about this epoch : Conflicts of states . Lucius & Lucius (UTB), Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8282-0419-5 , p. 13 f .
  6. ↑ Gustav v. Schmoller , quoted from Tilman Repgen, The social task of private law , Mohr Siebeck, 2001, ISBN 3-16-147516-X , p. 78 f.
  7. ↑ cf. Tobias ten Brink about this epoch: Conflicts of states . Lucius & Lucius (UTB), Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8282-0419-5 , p. 13 f .
  8. ↑ Werner Abelshauser, German Economic History. From 1945 to the present. , CH Beck, 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-51094-6 , p. 93
  9. ^ Willi Albers, Concise Dictionary of Economics , Volume 9, Gustav Fischer Verlag, 1982, ISBN 3-525-10260-7 , p. 192.
  10. ^ Willi Albers, Concise Dictionary of Economics , Volume 9, ISBN 3-525-10260-7 , pages 344, 345
  11. ↑ Willi Albers, Concise Dictionary of Economics , Volume 9, ISBN 3-525-10260-7 , page 345
  12. ↑ Willi Albers, Concise Dictionary of Economics , Volume 9, ISBN 3-525-10260-7 , page 345
  13. ↑ Josef Esser, Wolfgang Fach, Werner Väth : Krisenregulierung. For the political enforcement of economic constraints. Frankfurt / Main 1st edition 1983, (es 1176), ISBN 3-518-11176-0 , p. 72 ff.
  14. ^ David E. Sanger, Taking Risks With Bailout. (New York Times, December 8, 2008)
  15. ↑ “Any price structure that deviates from the equilibrium price system of full competition can mean an improvement for one person and a worsening of his maximum position for another. The system actually created by complete competition is in no way a priori distinguished in this respect. This state of affairs needs the proof by the maximum theorists. The objection that all other price systems do not represent a state of equilibrium, since in them profits and losses arise, is firstly incorrect; because this deficiency could be remedied by subsidies and taxes, which can only be rejected as market interventions if the optimality of the state without intervention has been proven. ” Hans Albert : Economic ideology and political theory . Verlag Otto Schwartz & Co: Göttingen 2nd ed. 1972. P. 74
  16. ^ "... the only way to secure economic 'Freedom' for the enterpriser is for the state to subsidize him!" C. Wright Mills: Collectivism and the 'Mixed-up' Economy. In: Power, Politics and People. The Collected Essays of C. Wright Mills. Oxford University Press London Oxford New York, p. 185