The West German State Derivation Debate
The Relation betweeen Economy and Politics as a Problem of Marxist State Theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2934496 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elmar Altvater, Jürgen Hoffmann (0000-0002-1322-755X) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Issue | 24 |
| Pages | 134 |
| Publication date | 1990-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Text (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0164-2472 • E-ISSN: 1527-1951 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/827831 |
| OpenAlex | W2327581757 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 1 |
In order to understand the peculiarities of the West German state discussion since the late 1960s, especially the state derivation debate (Staatsableitungdebatte), it is necessary to review the historical preconditions of that country's social trajectory. First, the critical and thereby also marxist tradition, which had been blossoming in the Weimar period, was interrupted by the Nazi terrors and then to boot by the postwar Stalinist vulgarization, so that the more recent marxist discussion found little to connect up with. For decades the Frankfurt School offered the most important theoretical reference point for the maturing critical left aside from a few isolated scholars who considered themselves to be working within the marxist tradition (Wolfgang Abendroth, Leo Kofler, and Ernest Mandel, the lastnamed having done much for the preservation of marxism in the Federal Republic). Second, West Germany did not live up to the many leftist predictions of collapse and progressive impoverishment. In particular, it did not live up to the prognoses of the Communist Party circles, which adhered closely to the line of the official socialist camp. Instead, West German society experienced an economic miracle in the 1950s and 60s. The political development of the Federal Republik into an anticommunist, authoritarian democracy under Chancellor Adenauer in the 1950s was thus sustained by a broad consensus. This consensus made possible the marginalization, indeed criminalization, of the left (best expressed in the outlawing of the Communist Party in 1956). Third, in the course of these events the Social Democrats [SPD] adjusted to the demands of restoration, an adjustment consummated in the famous Bad Godesberg Turn of 1959. Yet this adjustment was a thoroughly active one in the sense that they developed a distinctive political project of domestic reform coupled with detente in foreign affairs (Brandt's Ostpolitik). After a long period of neoliberal policy, they put forth what might be called an enlightened Keynesianism, geared towards full employment and redistribution of income for the benefit of the broad masses
Authoritarianism · Communism · Democracy · Economic history · German · Left-wing politics · Marxist philosophy · Nazism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Socialism · Sociology · Weimar Republic · European history and politics · German History and Society · History · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,2 |
| Citation span | 2001 - 2023 (23) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |