Rudolf Hilferding （1877-1941）, a representative politician and economist of the German Social Democratic Party, coped hard with the unstable political situation, the tasks of social policy and the structural change of economy in the mid-1920s, but his struggles have not been explored concretely enough yet. Late in 1923, he analyzed the establishment and the collapse of the great coalition government, which he himself had taken part in, and emphasized the importance of political power, warning against any illusion of coalition policy. In 1926, Hilferding put forth the concept of a “social republic,” which he had already implied in 1924. arguing for the abolishment of educational privilege, the promotion of social policy, etc. When a governmental crisis occurred in 1926/27, he urged in vain an immediate coalition. He again suggested a “social republic” as a genuine form of a welfare state.
At the party convention in Kiel, Hilferding proposed a resolution and developed the comprehensive theory of “organized capitalism,” pointing especially to the social character of big business management. He advocated an economy controlled by a democratic state through economic and corporate democracy. Politically, he defended democracy against fascism and recommended flexible coalition tactics. Regarding economic democracy, he cooperated with the trade union and his ideas about democratic management and the way to socialism were accepted in its program. In private letters and on other occasions, he found out the beginnings of social regulations in “organized capitalism.” About the reestablished great coalition in 1928, Hilferding raised democracy and peaceful foreign policy as its fundamental causes. As a whole, he was firmly convinced that political democracy, economic democracy and “social contents” of the republic as well should be inherited in a future society.
