Look through the contribution from Poul Fritz Kjær, Professor at Copenhagen Business School, @ the seminar 'Germany in Danish Business Research'.

1. Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis
Germany in Danish Business Research
4th November 2014
Poul F. Kjaer
Department of Business and Politics
Copenhagen Business School

2. The question:
Why do we have a deep crisis in some parts of the Euro-zone
but not in others?
A possible answer:
The Euro-crisis is just as much a state-crisis as it is an
economic crisis.
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Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis

3. Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831)
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4. Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis
Hegel and the Emergence of the Modern State
Hegel: “Die Verfassung Deutschlands” (1800): Why is
Germany not a modern state? - The dominance of localistic
private power.
Hegel: "Rechtsphilosophie” (1820): “Staat und
Gesellschaft” - Public and private - Traces of modern public
power and statehood.
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5. Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis
What Makes a Modern State Different From a Not So
Modern State?
1. A modern state is not a patrimonium (Kant) – distinction
between office and person (Amt und Person).
2. The existence of a generalised form of public political
power – binding decisions for everyone - superiors and
subordinates – no privileges.
3. The separation of “State and (the rest) of Society” (Staat
und Gesellschaft) through law – public and private.
4. A capability to establish “singular contexts” – or
“societies”.
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6. Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis
Franz Leopold Neumann (1900 – 1954)
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7. Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis
But modern statehood newer arrived for real…
“Germany was never a united nation – and never a
democracy. She was always divided… Besides the Germany
of Potsdam and the Germany of Weimar there exists an
industrial Germany and an agrarian Germany, a proletarian
Germany and a Germany of the propertied classes, a Catholic
and Lutheran Germany, a Germany of the federal states and a
Germany of the Reich, a Germany of youth and one of old
age. There is above all a democratic and an anti-democratic
Germany.”
Franz Neumann 1933.
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8. Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis
The downfall Weimar according to Neumann (and
others):
- A strongly cartelised economy – continuation of feudal
patterns
- The suspension of law – “Kriegsökonomie”
- Networks of collusion and localistic power
- breakdown of the public/private distinction
- the state apparatus as a vehicle of private interests
- selective application of the law
The result: A mutual disintegration of politics and the
economy.
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9. Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis
And now to the Financial Crisis…
Contemporary Greece, Spain or Italy
Lack of territorial control – strong regional autonomy and
tendencies of “balkanization”.
A politicised judiciary
Selective application of the law – the building boom
Deregulation from the 1990s onwards - the (re-)emergence
of localistic networks: e.g. the ‘saving banks’
The result: De-differentiaiton (Luhmann) Re-feudalisation
(Habermas)
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10. Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis
Conclusions
Modern Statehood is more fragile and materialised far later
and in a smaller part of the world than typically assumed.
The problems faced in the south used to the problem of the
north no so long ago…
“Merkel’s project” needs to be about far more than
economic imbalances – a profound restructuring and reform
of the state – Stein and Hardenberg in Greece.
Not just economists but also lawyers, political scientists and
sociologists are in demand.
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11. Read More about the ITEPE Project:
Institutional Transformations in European Political Economy –
A Socio-Legal Approach
www.itepe.eu
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Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis

12. Hegel, Weimar and the Financial Crisis
Thank You!
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