Post-War Germany’s Transition to “Open Access Orderˮ

Abstract

The article explores the formation of a new political and economic system in post-war Germany. By using the concept of ‘open access order’ suggested by Douglas North, the authors analyze the factors that explain successful transition to this order and achievement of the ‘doorstep conditions’. The main task for both external and internal political actors in Germany after 1945 was to make commitments on the new country’s institutional setting credible and to avoid the monopoly of small elite groups on political and economic power. The article states that key factors of consolidation of the ‘open access order’ in Germany are: a) decentralization and strategic coalition formation that guaranteed the multiplicity of actors and their integration into the new political system; b) decartelization that broke up the economic monopoly of small interest groups; c) Germany’s integration as an equal partner into the emerging European supranational institutions. Moreover, the authors show how in the German case the doorstep condition of consolidated control over the military transformed into a contextual one, having a positive influence on the achievement of other conditions.