As Much Market as Possible; as Much State as Necessary

Abstract

A major symbol of German social democracy’s rejection of state-centred socialism during the 1950s was the slogan: So viel Markt wie möglich; so viel Staat wie nötig (‘As much market as possible; as much state as necessary’). Like all slogans, it begged important questions: what constitutes the possible, and what the necessary? And it is doubtful whether the majority of active social democrats, in Germany or anywhere else in Europe, ever fully accepted this a priori preference given to the market. The slogan does, however, provide far more food for thought than most other political ones, and it is well worth revisiting it today, after more or less three decades of dominance of the world by an ideology, neoliberalism, that seems to believe only in the first half of the statement. This has also been a dominance that culminated in one of history’s biggest failures of the market, followed by the rush of states to its rescue, in the financial crisis of 2008–2009.