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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2011
What is the relationship of economic history to the study of comparative economic systems? Perhaps the major contribution to thought on this subject has been made by Walter Eucken, whose ideas may be taken as the starting point for our discussion.
1 The Foundation of Economics: History and Theory in the Analysis of Economic Reality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951)Google Scholar.
2 Within economic systems, emphasis has been placed more upon the relationship between theory and systems. In concentrating here upon the empirical side of systems, we are able to bring to the fore some neglected issues in contemporary discussions on systems.
3 Cf. Eucken, Walter, “Wissenschaft im Stile Schmollers,” Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, LXIV (1940), pp. 469–506Google Scholar and idem, “Die Ueberwindung des Historismus,” Schmollers Jahrbuch, LXII (1938), pp. 63–86Google Scholar.
4 For the reasons why this is an untenable position see Mandelbaum, Maurice, “Societal Facts,” British Journal of Sociology, VI, (1955), pp. 305–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Spiethoff's work is of special methodological interest since he succeeded in integrating the records of individual cycles into one typical pattern of cycles. See Schweitzer, Arthur, “Spiethoff's Theory of the Business Cycle,” University of Wyoming Publications, VIII (Laramie: University of Wyoming, 1940), pp. 1–30Google Scholar.
6 For a detailed study of the meta-economic data see Löwe, Adolf, Economics and Sociology (London: Allen and Unwin, 1935)Google Scholar.
7 The list of meta-economic features given by Sombart, Spiethoff, and Ritschl exceeds the one stated here. For a brief summary of their suggestions see Haller, Heinz, Typus und Gesetz in der Nationalökonomie, (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1950), pp. 61–70, 79–88Google Scholar.
8 It is this exclusion of choice among different kinds of plans in the same situation that has induced one of his admirers to charge Eucken with unwarranted determinism, since the plans are “dictated by the facts.” (J. W. N. Watkins, “Walter Eucken, Philosopher-Economist,” Ethics, LXIV [Jan. 1953]). This particular accusation, however, has to be modified for those cases in which the hidden law of minimum cost predetermines the plans of man.
9 For a spirited defense of the one-system idea see Knight, Frank, History and Methods of Economics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1956), pp. 91–95Google Scholar.
10 See his articles “On the Theory of the Centrally Administered Economy: An Analysis of the German Experiment,” Economica, XV (May and Aug. 1948)Google Scholar.
11 Schweitzer, Arthur, “Der ursprüngliche Vierjahresplan,” Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, CLXVIII (Feb. 1957), pp. 348–96Google Scholar.
12 Big Business in the Third Reich (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1964), chs. i and x and Appendix BGoogle Scholar.
13 For a quite different but interesting attempt at typifying patterns of decision see Braybrooke, David and Lindblom, Charles E., A Strategy of Decision (New York: Free Press [Macmillan], 1963)Google Scholar.
14 Schweitzer, , “Vom Idealtypus zum Prototyp,” Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft, CXX (Jan. 1964), pp. 13–55Google Scholar.
15 For a sample, see my attempt at ascertaining the common and divergent features of the economic ideologies adhered to by Communist and Nazi rulers in “Ideological Strategy,” Western Political Quarterly, XV (Mar. 1962), pp. 46–66Google Scholar.
16 Bock, Kenneth E., The Acceptance of Histories (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1956)Google Scholar.
17 Cf. Big Business in the Third Reich, pp. 44–50.
18 As a sample for using the comparative and typological methods on the same set of materials, see chs. vi and x of my book, and my article on “Der organisierte Kapitalismus,” Hamburger Jahrbuch für Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftspolitik (Tübingen: Mohr, 1962), pp. 32–47Google Scholar.