Lorenz von Stein (November 18, 1815 – September 23, 1890) was a German economist, sociologist and public administration scholar from Eckernförde. As an advisor to the Meiji period in Japan, his liberal political views influenced the formulation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan. He has been called "the intellectual father of the welfare state". This article is devoted not only to the biography of Lorenz von Stein, but also to his main ideas, the main of which is rightly considered the welfare state. It will be discussed separately.
Origin and early years
Lorenz von Stein was born in the seaside town of Borby in Eckernförde, in Schleswig-Holstein, to Wasmer Jacob Lorenz. He studied philosophy and jurisprudence at the universities of Kiel and Jena from 1835-1839, and at the University of Paris from 1841-1842. Between 1846 and 1851for years Stein was an assistant professor at the University of Kiel and was also a member of the Frankfurt Parliament in 1848. His defense of the independence of his native Schleswig, then part of Denmark, led to his dismissal in 1852.
Career start
In 1848, Lorenz von Stein published a book en titled Socialist and Communist Movements after the Third French Revolution (1848), in which he introduced the term "social movement" into scholarly discussions, in effect depicting political movements struggling for social rights understood as the welfare of rights.
This theme was repeated in 1850 when Stein published a book titled A History of French Social Movements from 1789 to the Present (1850). For Lorenz von Stein, the social movement was basically understood as a movement from society to the state, created by inequality in the economy, which makes the proletariat part of politics through representation. The book was translated into English by Kaethe Mengelberg, published by Bedminster Press in 1964 (Kahman, 1966)
University career
From 1855 until his retirement in 1885, Lorenz von Stein was a professor of political economy at the University of Vienna. His works of that period are considered the foundation of international science of public administration. He also influenced public finance practices.
In 1882, Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi led a delegation to Europe to study Westerngovernment systems. The delegation went first to Berlin, where they were instructed by Rudolf von Gneist, and then to Vienna, where Stein lectured at the University of Vienna. As with Gneist, Stein's message to the Japanese delegation was that universal suffrage and partisan politics should be avoided. Stein believed that the state is above society, the goal of the state was to bring about social reform, which was carried out from the monarchy to the common people.
The Doctrine of Control by Lorenz von Stein
Stein is best known for applying Hegelian dialectics to public administration and national economics to improve the systematization of these sciences, but he did not neglect the historical aspects.
Lorenz von Stein, the founder of the concept of the welfare state, analyzed the class state of his time and compared it with the welfare state. He outlined an economic interpretation of history that included the concepts of the proletariat and class struggle, but he rejected revolutionary procedure. Despite the similarity of his ideas to those of Marxism, the extent of Stein's influence on Karl Marx remains uncertain. Nevertheless, Marx shows through von Stein's absent-minded remarks that he was aware of his highly influential 1842 book on communist thought in France. For example, The German Ideology (1845–46) mentions Stein, but only as the author of his 1842 book. While von Stein mentions Marx on occasion, the opposite seems less likely.
Death
Stein died at his home in Hadersdorf-Weidlingau in the Pensing district of Vienna. He was buried at the Protestant cemetery Matzleinsdorf. There is a small monument to him in this area.
Lorenz von Stein: welfare state
The welfare state (welfare state) is a form of government in which the state protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of citizens on the basis of the principles of equal opportunity, equitable distribution of we alth and public responsibility for citizens unable to enjoy the minimum conditions for a good life. Sociologist T. H. Marshall has characterized the modern welfare state as a distinctive combination of democracy, welfare, and capitalism.
History
The first welfare state has its origins in legislation enacted by Otto von Bismarck in the 1880s to expand Junker privileges as a strategy to make ordinary Germans more loyal to the throne against the modernist movements of classical liberalism and socialism.
As a type of mixed economy, the welfare state funds public he alth and education institutions along with direct payments to individual citizens.
Modern application of Stein's ideas
Modern welfare states include Germany and France, Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as the Nordic countries, inusing a system known as the Scandinavian model. The various implementations of the welfare state fall into three categories: (i) social democratic, (ii) conservative, and (iii) liberal.
Modern social security programs are fundamentally different from earlier forms of poverty relief in their universal and comprehensive nature. The Social Security Institute in Germany under Bismarck was a prime example. Some schemes have been based primarily on the development of autonomous benefit sharing. Others were based on government provision.
In his highly influential essay "Citizenship and Social Class" (1949), the British sociologist T. G. Marshall called modern welfare states a distinctive combination of democracy, welfare, and capitalism, arguing that citizenship should include access to social as well as political and civil rights. Examples of such states are Germany, all of the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, France, Uruguay, New Zealand and Great Britain in the 1930s. Since then, the term "welfare state" has only been applied to countries where social rights are accompanied by civil and political rights.
Stein's ancient predecessors
Indian Emperor Ashoka put forward his idea of a welfare state in the 3rd century BC. He presented his dharma (religion or path) as more than just a bunch of buzzwords. He deliberately tried to accept itas a matter of public policy. He declared that "all people are my children" and "whatever I do, I only seek to pay off the debt I owe to all living beings." It was a completely new ideal of kingship. Ashoka renounced war and conquest through violence and forbade the killing of many animals. Because he wanted to conquer the world with love and faith, he sent out many missions to promote the Dharma.
Missions were sent to places like Egypt, Greece and Sri Lanka. The spread of the Dharma included many human welfare measures, human and animal treatment centers established inside and outside the empire. Shady groves, wells, gardens and rest houses were laid out. Ashoka also forbade useless sacrifices and certain forms of gatherings that led to wastefulness, indiscipline and superstition. To implement this policy, he hired a new staff of officers called Dharmamahamattas. Part of the duty of this group was to see that people of various sects were treated fairly. They were specifically asked to look after the welfare of the prisoners.
What does Lorenz von Stein's (briefly) welfare state theory say about this? The concepts of welfare and pensions were introduced into early Islamic law as a form of zakat (charity), one of the five pillars of Islam, under the Rashidun Caliphate in the 7th century. This practice continued well into the era of the Abbasid Caliphate. Taxes (including Zakat and Jizya) collected in the treasury of the Islamic government were used to provide revenuethe needy, including the poor, the elderly, orphans, widows and the disabled. According to Islamic jurist Al-Ghazali, the government also had to stockpile food supplies in every region in case of natural disaster or famine. Thus, the Caliphate can be considered the world's first major welfare state.
Opinion of historians
The concept of the welfare state of Lorenz von Stein has been repeatedly analyzed by historians. Historian Robert Paxton notes that on the European continent, welfare state provisions were initially adopted by conservatives in the late nineteenth century and fascists in the twentieth to distract workers from unionism and socialism, and were opposed by leftists and radicals. He recalls that the German welfare state was created in the 1880s by Chancellor Bismarck, who had just shut down 45 newspapers and passed laws banning the German Socialist Party and other meetings of trade unionists and socialists.
A similar version was created by Count Eduard von Taaffe in the Austro-Hungarian Empire a few years later. Legislation to help the working class in Austria originated from Catholic conservatives. They turned to social reform, using Swiss and German models and intervening in government economic matters. They studied the Swiss Factories Act of 1877, which restricted working hours for everyone and gave maternity benefits, as well as German laws that insuredworkers from the production risks inherent in the workplace. This is also mentioned in books on the theory of the social state by Lorenz von Stein.
