Suchergebnisse

Which political, socio-economic, and cultural circumstances bring actors to recognize property rights, and what are the consequences with regard to the economic performance of a business company? To answer this question, this article analyzes the allocation of property rights in firms with a view to systematizing the categories of analysis. Business firms are continuously subject to internal and external structural challenges. As a consequence, they have to be able to transform their organizational structures very flexibly and very dynamically. Property rights are one of the central aspects of this process.This essay begins with a short summary of the basic characteristics of property rights theory, which offers an approach to studying social practices, processes of codification, and institutional changes in different property regimes. With these problems in mind, I suggest combining the theoretical and methodological implications of this economic model using the concept of "recognition" as a link between the social and the structural dimension of property. In the final part of the essay, I propose a systematic model for economic and business historians interested in analyzing governance structures within firms. I show how property rights theory can be modified to be applicable to the work of historians and social scientist without sacrificing its analytical value.

Abstract
This special issue presents East German as well as East European perspectives on the transformation phases after 1945 and 1989 and advocates the long-term analysis of corporations in the socialist planned economies as an independent research field. This includes not only economic questions but also cultural phenomena of everyday life, as well as questions of identity, milieu, confession or tradition. Ultimately, the aim is to extend this perspective to Eastern Europe. Again, the focus is not on the Comecon countries and their corporations alone. The interdependencies and interconnections between the East European and Western markets should also be taken into account.

Abstract
The article offers a new perspective on the economic and business history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It argues that the historiographical emphasis on the "failure" of the East German planned economy should be replaced by an analysis of those factors which allowed the GDR economy to exist as long as it did and the effects they had on the system as a whole. To do so, the article first provides an overview of the structural conditions that characterized the East German economy and looks at the position and role of the publically-owned companies within the "Budgetverwaltungswirtschaft" (budget administration economy). To determine in which ways the East German companies functionally differed from capitalist ones, the article investigates in a second step the characteristics of capitalist economies, specifically the relevance awarded to companies and entrepreneurs as constitutive elements of the market. By distinguishing analytically the distribution of property rights bundles awarded to the different actors in the economy, the article provides a basis for comparing the functions of companies in capitalist and non-capitalist systems without assuming an essential difference between the two types of companies a priori. Finally, the article demonstrates the methodological insight gained from the comparative analysis by drawing on examples from the company Simson.

The article offers a new perspective on the economic and business history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It argues that the historiographical emphasis on the "failure" of the East German planned economy should be replaced by an analysis of those factors which allowed the GDR economy to exist as long as it did and the effects they had on the system as a whole. To do so, the article first provides an overview of the structural conditions that characterized the East German economy and looks at the position and role of the publically-owned companies within the "Budgetverwaltungswirtschaft" (budget administration economy). To determine in which ways the East German companies functionally differed from capitalist ones, the article investigates in a second step the characteristics of capitalist economies, specifically the relevance awarded to companies and entrepreneurs as constitutive elements of the market. By distinguishing analytically the distribution of property rights bundles awarded to the different actors in the economy, the article provides a basis for comparing the functions of companies in capitalist and non-capitalist systems without assuming an essential difference between the two types of companies a priori. Finally, the article demonstrates the methodological insight gained from the comparative analysis by drawing on examples from the company Simson. ; Peer Reviewed

Vorspann
Aufarbeitungsforschung hat Konjunktur in Deutschland. Vor allem Organisationen der öffentlichen Verwaltung lassen in jüngster Zeit ihre Geschichte in der NS-Zeit und die Folgen wissenschaftlich untersuchen. Oft stehen dabei die NS-Belastung des Personals und einzelne Politikfelder im Zentrum, weniger die wissenschaftliche Analyse des Verwaltungshandelns an sich. Sören Eden, Henry Marx und Ulrike Schulz, die im Rahmen der Unabhängigen Historikerkommission zur Aufarbeitung der Geschichte des Reichsarbeitsministeriums im Nationalsozialismus tätig und damit einschlägig ausgewiesen sind, entwickeln hier einen organisationssoziologisch inspirierten Ansatz, der über die Grenzen konventioneller Verwaltungsgeschichte hinausweist.