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Weimar Germany: The first open access order that failed?

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  • Alfred Reckendrees

Abstract

The Weimar Republic is analysed within the concept of limited and open access orders. Before World War I, Imperial Germany had developed into a mature limited access order with rule of law and open economic access but lack of competition in politics. After World War I and inflation, Weimar Germany developed toward an open access order; open access was not, however, sustainable and collapsed in 1930–31. This case of a failed open access order suggests refining the framework of limited and open access orders in further work. It shows that the political process of “creative destruction” might result in dissolution of open access and that the political system needs the capacity of efficiently creating legitimacy in order to sustain openness. The failure of Weimar Germany also indicates that the international political system might work as a destabilizing factor of open access and that the nation-state perspective of the limited and open access order framework needs to be supplemented by an international perspective. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Alfred Reckendrees, 2015. "Weimar Germany: The first open access order that failed?," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 38-60, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:copoec:v:26:y:2015:i:1:p:38-60
    DOI: 10.1007/s10602-014-9184-9
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    1. Paolo Di Martino & Emanuele Felice & Michelangelo Vasta, 2017. "The curious case of the coexistence of two “access-orders”: Explaining the Italian regional divide," Department of Economics University of Siena 758, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    2. Steven Webb, 2017. "Populism: A Threat to Democracy? Or a verification of it?," Journal of Contextual Economics (JCE) – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 137(4), pages 401-420.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Limited and open access; International political economy; Weimar Republic; Sustainability of open access; N4; O19; P1;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N4 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations
    • P1 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies

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