Wagner's law

The Wagner Act ( named after Adolph Wagner, German economist, 1835-1917 ), also known as Wagner 's law of increasing state spending, provides an explanation for the internationally observable sustainable state growth dar. This can be easily observed on the rising real expenditure ratios and government expenditure ratios. Wagner explains the continuous state growth by always better fulfillment of the activities of the public sector as well as through the newly added tasks. In a development from a pure state of order towards the welfare state, the government activity increases.

Wagner 's law of increasing state activity: Due to the ongoing technological and social developments, Wagner saw, new tasks for the political system. This would be in the areas of welfare and cultural purposes, but also in the Advancement of Science.

Causes

Wagner himself took it that the public needs to be better and better satisfied in this way and therefore assessed the increasing financial needs of the state positively.

However, the actual causes of the increase are controversial. Many economists believe that the government promises additional benefits in times of election campaign. Once accustomed to such benefits occurs a " ratchet effect ", in which the citizens would respond to a lowering on a previous level with deselection.

Criticism

In the empirical example Germany:

Although the number of public service employees in Germany from 1960 (3.1 million ) and 1994 ( 6.3 million ) had doubled, part of this increase, however, due to the accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic, because that was abruptly ca. 2 million state officials slammed the west German workforce. Even after the authorities settlement in 1994 was still assumed, especially as the local government in the new countries than in western Germany was significantly overstaffed. In thousand inhabitants came in 1996 in the western German states between 41.8 and 58.0 servants, while they were in the new federal states between 57.6 and 64.8 staff ( except Berlin: West: 82.1, East: 57.6 ). By 1998, however, is to register with 5.07 million employees, a decrease in staffing of public service. This reduction in staff numbers in particular after 1994 is mainly due to privatization efforts at all levels of the government structure, especially on the privatization of railways and postal services, with around 1 million employees in 1994/95 from the official statistics (but not from asset liability of the Federal ) were eliminated. Privatization and restrictive fiscal policy have meant that the workforce had ( in 1990 with 4.9 million) in 1998 reached almost to the levels seen before the reunification. Given the concentration of the civil service to a few areas of responsibility can be assumed that the Wagner Act ever-increasing government spending is broken down in terms of its human consequences. But against this we note that the intentional understaffing of public services does not lead to a refutation of Wagner 's law, since the actual staffing needs of the state is indeed risen; alone in financial management, according to the Supreme Court in 1900 Bavaria missing Officials (as of 2012).