First Socialization Debate (1918) and Early Efforts Towards Socialization

Jürgen G. Backhaus (*1950), JSD 1976, PhD (Econ) 1985, Professor of Public Finance and Fiscal Sociology at Erfurt University 2000-2015. Between 1986 and 2000, he has held the chair in Public Economics at Maastricht University. In 2006 he received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Knight’s Cross), in September 2004 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Thessaly (Greece). In 1994 he founded (with Frank H. Stephen) the European Journal of Law and Economics. He has published 60 books and monographs, about 200 articles in refereed journals and book chapters, 28 scholarly notes and 63 reviews. His research interests span economics, but also neighboring disciplines such as law, fiscal sociology and environmental sciences.

• Chapter 1: Introduction to the First Socialization Debate.-  Chapter 2: The First Socialization Debate of 1918.-  Chapter 3: From Financial Capital to Organized Capitalism.-  Chapter 4: Visions of Socialization and Political Reality.-  Chapter 5: Different Views of Socialization Strategies in Germany since the First Socialization Debate.-  Chapter 6: Socialization Proposals.-  Chapter 7: Anti-Semitism versus Democracy and Welfare State in Weimar Republic.-  Chapter 8: Otto Neurath's Concepts of Socialization and Economic Calculation and his Socialist Critics.-  Chapter 9: Socialization Concepts of Non-Socialist Economists in Austria.- Chapter 10: Three Models of Schumpeter, Rathenau, Hilferding of Neo-Capitalist Economy to Recover a National Identity of the Masses.-  Chapter 11: From Nationalization to Planning.- Chapter 12: Suffrage Extension and Redistribution.- Chapter 13: The Mises-Lederer-Marschak Controversy.-  Chapter 14: Mises'Argument Against the Possibility of Socialism.-  Chapter 14: The Euthanasia of Capitalism.-

“The authors’ style is remarkably clear, sober, and rigorous: the use of graphs and algebra is reduced to a minimum, and the language is deliberately non-technical and highly readable. ... the book can legitimately be regarded as an excellent work, which both captures the quintessence of the socialisation debate and describes its historical evolution in a systematic and extremely lucid way. Thanks to the authors’ contributions … . ” (Roberto Lampa, The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 28 (4), 2021)