The Political Economy Of German Unification

Examines such issues as privatization, monetary reform, and unemployment in reunified Germany. Contributors from economics and politics discuss the complex processes of the unification and what can be learned from it about economies and societies that undergo profound transformations. They suggest that Europe as a whole is about to encounter such change of like magnitude. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In this book, the authors argue that policymakers were so preoccupied with fiscal problems that they ignored east Germany's anemic production, inflated employment, and decayed infrastructure. The authors urge adoption of hard-headed medium-term strategies so that west and east can grow closer and enjoy economic growth.

German unification has proven to be a complex, multidimensional process rather than a single political event. Four years after political unification, Germany continues to confront formidable economic, social, and cultural challenges in the unification process. This volume examines some of economic, social and legal aspects of the unification process four years after political unification was achieved.

This timely examination of the major issues in German unification emphasises its impact on different sectors of the economy and their likely consequences.

There is a striking chronological parallel between Germany’s transition from a post-Malthusian regime to modern economic growth and the formation of a modern nation-state between the late 1860s and the early 1880s, which culminated in the events of 1871.The central question of this book is whether and how such state formation did in fact contribute to economic development. Twenty chapters written by leading experts in their respective fields deal with various aspects of the book’s main question. Together, they identify three channels by which national unification contributed to Germany’s economic development: (1) Creation of a nation-state completed a process of institutional Unification of a large inland area and thereby increased the integration of domestic markets. (2) Unification raised the capacity of the political system with respect to regulating complex domains, such as stock companies, patenting, and social insurance. (3) The emerging political regime of market-preserving federalism promoted the quality of economic institutions. Moreover, a set of chapters dealing with the experience of other European economies apart from Germany during the second half of the nineteenth century highlight additional factors in nineteenth-century economic development, most notably the first wave of modern globalization and economic geography. Readers interested in the history of state building and the economic history of Germany and of Europe in general during the age of industrialization and globalization and students of the economic effects of political integration and decentralized state growth will all gain much from this book.

Today the problems of reunification seem to feature more often in the international spotlight than the benefits. This timely volume offers a reassessment of Germany's postwar development from its inception through to reunification, including a thorough examination of the implications for economic, political and social policies. The impressive team of contributors include leading names in the history of modern Germany, together with some of the ablest younger scholars in the field. They are: Hartmut Berghoff, David Childs, Immanuel Geiss, Graham Hallett, Klaus Larres, Terry McNeill, Torsten Opelland, Richard Overy, Stephen Padgett, Panikos Panayi, and Mathias Siekmeier.