On the stability of open access orders: the Federal Republic of Germany since the 1960s

The Article applies the NWW-approach to the economic history of post-war Germany. The approach suggests it was only after the Second World War that Germany arrived at the most advanced institutional structure that does not any longer restrict access to economic and political resources. Though critical on that suggestion, the article does not aim at challenging the timing aspect of the approach but the argument that Open Access Orders are self-enforcing and stable. After giving empirical evidence that can support the country’s transformation in the 1960s, the article discusses the stability aspect in greater detail. Especially the intergenerational distribution of wealth and the increasing state debt to be paid by future generation might contribute to the social order’s instability. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015