The history of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
On November 1, 2011, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs
appointed Werner Abelshauser as part of the ministries independent
historical commission. This commission is tasked with researching the
history of German economic policy featuring the Federal Ministry for
Economic Affairs and Energy and its predecessor organizations as main
actors. Starting with the history of the establishment of the Reich
Office of Economic Affairs in 1917 (previously part of the Reich
Interior Ministry), the research project covers the period until German
reunification in 1990 with a perspective to present time. The results
will be published in four volumes, that is for the period until 1933
(I), from 1933 to 1945 (II), from 1945 to 1990 in the Federal Republic
of Germany (IV), as well as parallel structures from 1945 to 1990 in
the German Democratic Republic (III).
Abelshauser is managing editor of the fourth volume (Federal Republic
of Germany from 1945 to 1990). It will be focused on the very character
of German economic policy on two empirical fields: How is German
economic policy placed between the single European market and world
market strategies? And what is its position between economic governance
(Ordnungspolitik) and process policy: i.e. regulary economic governance
(Produktive Ordnungspolitik). He has asked colleagues from German and
British Universities with extensive research experience in economic
history to contribute to this volume. He will also contribute three
articles to the publication as a whole. For research into source
materials, the authors will travel not only to the Federal Archives in
Berlin and Koblenz, but also to the State, Federal and European
Archives in London, Paris, Washington, D.C. and Florence. The project
will be completed in late 2015.
Economic cultures in global-comparative perspective
When David Ricardo published his theorem of comparative (labor) cost
advantages he triggered a revolution within the theory of world trade
which is still state of the art. Almost 200 years later and against the
background of postindustrial development, we need a new approach
because labor costs are no longer the most decisive factor for
competitive advantage on technologically advanced markets. Yet the key
to immaterial (post-industrial) production is comparative institutional
advantages based on new, widely accepted mindsets (shared mental
models) and market behavior – the rules of the game. An economic
culture of this kind is important within clearly defined fields of the
social system of production, such as the financial system, corporate
governance, interest policy, the inter-company-system, the fields of
vocational training and education and – last but not least
– industrial relations.
This project analyses the changing conditions for Ricardos` law today.
This includes an outline of the emergence and performance of the
economic culture. The marketplace of world society is dominated by
companies from North America, Europe and East Asia. But what is the
role of their respective cultural background in this competitive field?
The increasing dynamics of world markets make it all the more urgent to
understand the cultural background via scientific research. Obviously
cultural differences are what drive economic competition within world
society and ensure its future. The project focuses on the economic
cultures of the four most competitive trading nations (USA, China,
Japan, Germany) contrasting their comparative institutional advantages
with the economic culture of less successful economic regions on the
world market.
The project started 2010 with a Bielefeld conference on “Economic
Culture – Cultures of World Economy” which was funded by
the Institute for Global Society Studies. The results of the conference
have been published in a special issue of the German journal for
historical social science “Geschichte und Gesellschaft”: W.
Abelshauser / David A. Gilgen / A. Leutzsch (Hg.), Kulturen der
Weltwirtschaft, Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht 2012. The aim of the project
is a monograph on the subject.