The present relevance of ordnungstheorie for the politics and the economics of the social order
pp. 200-243
in: Agnes Labrousse, Jean-Daniel Weisz (eds), Institutional economics in France and Germany, Berlin, Springer, 2001Abstract
The German national accounts show an almost uninterrupted rise in the government expenditure share of GDP at the expense of the market economy share. Between 1950 and 1962 less than 35% of national income was in one way or another directed by agencies of the state and of social security, but since 1975 it has remained at about 50% (see Graph 7.1 in the appendix). The increase is mainly due to a sharp increase in the “social budget” which in 1960 accounted for 21.7% of GDP and in 1995 amounted to more than 34%. These figures could be summarized to the effect that the “social market economy” is becoming synonymous with what might be called a “social state economy”.