Sozialansprüche, individuelle Eigentumsbildung und Marktsystem

The author analyses the economic consequences of social rights on the effectiveness of private asset building and the viability of the market system. He distinguishes two types of social rights: those which allow freedom, individual property and a competitive market system, and those which compete with the major market institutions for prime position. It is the second type on which this article focuses. Social rights of this type have been expanding at a tremendous rate for decades in Germany. This in turn has restricted the field in which human ability and resources can prosper. The intellectual and political forces that have made this possible are examined critically under the aspect of their relationship to the market system and in the context of the associated economic and social failures. Successful approaches to reform require that social rights are seen in connection with the institutions of the market system. The author therefore compares individual asset building and social rights with a view on their respective effects on human motivation, potential and control of action, thus on the specific effects which enable the market system to adjust to the changing requirements of the environment. In examining control of action special attention is paid to the Federal Constitutional Court’s position on property and the „Doctrine of Provision for Life“, on which this position is primarily based. In the final section the author examines the advantages of integrating social rights into the market system. In Germany suitable perspectives are seen especially in the growing individualisation and market orientation of the old age pension scheme connected with the name of the Federal Minister of Labour, Herr Riester. However, the author sees in the accompanying regulatory concept a starting point to establish new social rights which would have a disintegrative effect on the market system.