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Begin New Search Topic Economics Author Martin Höpner

1. A New Phase of European Integration:Organized Capitalisms in Post-Ricardian Europe

Author:
Armin Schäfer and Martin Höpner
Publication Date:
03-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
European Research Papers Archive
Abstract:
In the past, economic integration in Europe was largely compatible with the persistence of different national varieties of capitalism. While product market integration intensified competition, member states could build on and foster their respective comparative advantage. To date, this no longer unequivocally holds true. We contend that a new, 'Post-Ricardian' phase of European integration has emerged in which the Commission's and the ECJ's attempts to further economic integration systematically challenge the institutions of organized capitalism. This quest for liberalization has reached a point at which its output legitimacy is increasingly uncertain. As a result, the de-politicization of EU decisions proves increasingly unsuccessful. In addition, liberalization measures rely on a very generous interpretations of the 'four freedoms' that exceeds the amount of liberalization the member states agreed upon in the European treaties and, therefore, lacks input legitimacy. We show this by discussing recent struggles over the Services Directive, the Takeover Directive, and company law. In the current phase of European integration, the Commission's and the ECJ's liberalization attempts either transform the institutional foundations on which some of the member states' economic systems rely or they create political resistance to an extent that calls into question the European project. The case studies reveal evidence for both of these possibilities.
Topic:
Development and Economics
Political Geography:
Europe

2. The Politics of the German Company Network

Author:
Martin Höpner and Lothar Krempel
Publication Date:
09-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Abstract:
For over 100 years, the German company network was a major feature of organized corporate governance in Germany. This paper uses network visualization techniques and qualitative-historical analysis to discuss the structure, origins and development of this network and to analyze the reasons for its recent erosion. Network visualization makes it possible to identify crucial entanglement patterns that can be traced back historically. In three phases of network formation – the 1880s, 1920s and the 1950s –, capital entanglement resulted from the interplay of company behavior and government policy. In its heyday, the company network was de facto encompassing and provided its core participants, especially the banks, with a national, macroeconomic perspective. In the 1970s, a process of increased competition among financial companies set in. In the 1980s and 1990s, declining returns from blockholding and increased opportunity costs made network dissolution a thinkable option for companies. Because of the strategic reorientation of the largest banks toward investment banking, ties between banks and industry underwent functional changes. Since the year 2000, the German government's tax policy has sped up network erosion. Vanishing capital ties imply a declining degree of strategic coordination among large German companies.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and Governance
Political Geography:
Europe and Germany