Schulze-Delitzsch's Doctrine of Cooperative Economy as a Liberalist Solution to the Social Problem in the Nineteenth Century Cover Image

Schulze-Delitzscheva zadružnogospodarska doktrina kot liberalni odgovor na socialno vprašanje v 19. stoletju
Schulze-Delitzsch's Doctrine of Cooperative Economy as a Liberalist Solution to the Social Problem in the Nineteenth Century

Author(s): Jurij Perovšek
Subject(s): National Economy, Agriculture, Governance, Economic history, Political history, Economic policy, Political economy, Economic development, 19th Century
Published by: Inštitut za novejšo zgodovino
Keywords: Schulze-Delitzsch's Doctrine; cooperative economy; liberalism; social problems; 19th century; agriculture; economic system;

Summary/Abstract: The author deals with the socio-economic ideas and practice of Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch, the founder of the German cooperative movement and the author of its legislation. He concludes that Schulze-Delitzsch's concept of cooperatives - i.e. societies based on the cooperation and mutual solidarity of its members, which dealt, among other, with the production and sale of agricultural products, the provision of machinery, raw materials and financial loans - was an attempt to find a "third way" between the Capitalist and Socialist economic systems. This attempt failed because the social reform programme of his cooperative organisation remained bound to a transitory stage of an economy heading towards a full-blown industrialisation and was overtaken by a progressive industrial development in the second half of the Nineteenth Century. However, an analysis of the concrete socioeconomic consequences of Schulze-Delitzsch's cooperative societies showed that they played a prominent and positive role in German politics and sociology.

  • Issue Year: 37/1997
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 17-35
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Slovenian