Re: Streeck on German Codetermination

["Rosser Jr, John Barkley" <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>]

     Last time I checked, Germany (at least the western
part of it) had the highest nominal wages (including
benefits) of any nation in the world.
    Certainly there is much to admire in the German system,
especially in contrast with the Anglo-American one.
However, before going off the deep end with praise we
should keep in mind several things:
     1)  The system of domination by banks is essentially
that of Hilferding's Finanzkapital.
     2)  Germany has a terrible record in regard to womens'
rights, abortion rights, etc.  In this regard the
Scandinavian social democracies, the Netherlands, and even
such Latin nations as France and Italy have better systems
and policies than the reactionary and repressive "kinder,
kuche, and kirche" approach effectively in place in Germany
and which was imposed on the former GDR after unification
with awful consequences.  I note that Switzerland and
Austria essentially imitate the German policies in this
area.  Pas bon.
     3)  Although Mitbestimmung offers some greater role
for labor in managerial decisionmaking, it is arguably not
as great as one gets in the Slovenian workers-management
(now increasingly backed up by workers ownership) system
derived from the old Yugoslav system.
    4)  And of course there remains the pernicious
influence on the whole European economy of the Deutsche
Bundesbank's tight monetary policies.  But that is now
going to change, one way or another with the euro and the
ECB.
Barkley Rosser
On Tue, 02 Jun 1998 17:10:17 -0700 (PDT) Dennis R Redmond
<dredmond@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Tue, 2 Jun 1998, Zhiyuan Cui cross-posted from the FT:
>
> > >>>>>>>                But Mr Streeck makes a strong case for
> > >>>>>>>                Mitbestimmung, not least because he has
> > >>>>>>>                overcome his own reservations. "I am more
> > >>>>>>>                than ever convinced the German system
> > >>>>>>>                provides a competitive advantage for
> > >>>>>>>                companies that implement it properly," he
> > >>>>>>>                says.
> > >>>>>>>
> > >>>>>>>                He argues that Mitbestimmung has helped
> > >>>>>>>                Germany's export-oriented manufacturers
> > >>>>>>>                stay competitive by fostering a culture
> > >>>>>>>                of co-operation in which companies have
> > >>>>>>>                developed human capital as well as
> > >>>>>>>                invested in plant and equipment.
>
> Yes, Streeck and a number of German industrial sociologists have long
> noted that the Central European accumulation regime is really one of the
> fairest, most effective and most efficient in the world (with the partial
> exception of Japan, which has more state programming of its economy, but
> also had weaker trade unions and much higher working hours). This is an
> important point about the EU: its industrial core really does play by very
> different rules than those obtaining, say, in the USA. It's not just
> Mitbestimmung, it's also a tremendously efficient banking system,
> characterized by long-term equity tie-ups, keiretsu banking structures,
> and state-level community banks, which fund local entrepreneurs and the
> notorious Mittelstand or medium-size firms. Fascinatingly, despite all the
> hoopla over Deutsche Bank, the German banking system remains one of the
> most decentralized in the world: far more so than the UK or US.
> Finally, powerful unions have consistently fought for real wages
> increases, which has reduced the possibility of speculative bubbles
> developing -- capital markets are geared towards industrial finance, not
> real estate or stock bubbles.
>
> Some of this may be changing, now that Germany is becoming the
> creditor-in-chief of the entire Eastern European economy, but there are
> powerful lessons here for the entire European Left, and indeed for
> progressive economists: strong unions and regulated credit markets are the
> crucial to mass prosperity and world-class industrial achievement.
>
> At the very least, it raises the interesting question of whether the
> Rheinland model might offer a useful alternative for the Visegrad
> countries. Certainly countries like Slovenia seem to be well on the way to
> West German-style export success.
>
> -- Dennis
>

--
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
rosserjb@xxxxxxx