NAZISM AND THE CONCEPT OF ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY
NAZISM AND THE CONCEPT OF ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY

Summary/Abstract: The paper offers a new analysis of the relation between Nazism and Socialism. For example Friedrich August von Hayek showed there are many similarities despite the open animosity between the proponents of both systems. In our paper, we are extending the analysis of these similarities to the “less popular” concepts of both systems – Socialist “economic democracy” and Othmar Spann’s proposal of “Ständestaat”. The analysis focuses on the different philosophical basis of both systems. While Socialist economic democracy starts with the concept of individual freedom, Spann and his followers offered the universalist concept of justice. But our analysis shows the collectivist elements of the Socialist concept of freedom and compares it with Spann’s justice. Then the paper analyses the concrete forms of economic system based upon the concepts of freedom and justice and shows the common economic consequences of the systems as well.

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