Role of the Public Sector in the Social Market Economy

The ‘social market economy’ (Soziale Marktwirtschaft) is both a reality and a programme. It is regarded as the trademark of the economic system developed in Germany after the currency reform of 20 June 1948 and it is also an economic policy model. The term reflects the dual character of any economic system. On the one hand, it is ‘the totality of realised forms in which, at a given time, the daily economic process takes place in concreto’.1 On the other hand, it can be used as a yardstick for judgments on economic policy measures, in terms of both intentions and actions. An analysis of the role of the state within the social market economy must correspond to the use of the term. It is therefore necessary to deal with the public sector both from the point of view of the number of people employed and the resources used and as the creator of a deliberate social and economic (as well as governmental) system; state agencies acting in accordance with this system are also included.