The Political Economy Of West Germany

The post-war emergence of West Germany as the dominant economic power in Europe gave rise to the mythology of the 'economic miracle' and the model policies of the 'social market economy'. This study reveals a mundane reality of class politics in which democratic institutions have become increasingly marginalised by big capital and by an unelected central bank. Economic policy has failed to halt the recent slide into mass unemployment and has reverted optimistically to the plan-less export drives of the fifties. The absence of the earlier advantages, the author claims, bodes ill for the future of 'model Germany'.

Through an examination of election campaign propaganda and various public relations campaigns, reflecting new electioneering techniques borrowed from the United States, this work explores how conservative political and economic groups sought to construct and sell a political meaning of the Social Market Economy and the Economic Miracle in West Germany during the 1950s.The political meaning of economics contributed to conservative electoral success, constructed a new belief in the free market economy within West German society, and provided legitimacy and political stability for the new Federal Republic of Germany.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1980.

Dynamic technological developments in industrial production, the rise of new social movements in national politics, and great changes in the international political economy have left a deep imprint on the Federal Republic. A compelling explanation of West Germany's success in maintaining economic prosperity and political stability under such challenging conditions has continued to elude observers. Under the editorship of Peter J. Katzenstein, thirteen distinguished scholars from both sides of the Atlantic here provide an original interpretation of the political economy of the Bonn Republic during the forty years since its founding, and explore in particular its extraordinary capacity for accommodating change. Whereas studies in political economy have typically focused on one level of political action—either the shop floor, or national politics, or the international system—this innovative account analyzes the interaction of change at all three levels, bringing together case studies drawn from six manufacturing and service sectors.

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

Examines the development of Soviet-West German relations from both the Russian and German sides.

The internationalization of the German political economy in the postwar era has produced a special socio-economic and political formation which this anthology views as a 'hegemonic project'. Based upon a virtually total West German integration into the 'West', this project has evolved within a new international division of labour and a global political system in which the German state, with its extreme level of export dependency and need for stability, has become a guardian and champion of the global status quo.