introduction

In the large body of literature that now exists on American and German economic policy since World War II, two apparently contradictory viewpoints constantly recur. One holds that the two countries' economic policies were quite different in nature, that there was “no place for Keynesianism” in the Federal Republic of Germany, and that German economic policy pursued a neoliberal line of its own with the concept of the social market economy. The other school of thought maintains that in the postwar period, the Federal Republic - more than other states - was linked by a special relationship to the United States, was receptive to American influences, and exhibited similarities and parallels with the United States that led to an extensive process of Americanization.

This apparent contradiction is examined here by considering the statements of the aims and concepts of economic policy, and of Ordnungspolitik (neoliberal regulatory policy) and Prozesspolitik (regulatory process policy) on each side of the Atlantic. The main emphasis is on financial and monetary policies. These were seen as the central branches of governmental economic policy following the Great Depression and in keeping with the ideas of John Maynard Keynes and are, therefore, a suitable starting point for a comparison.