Jump to content

Cameralism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For single-chamber legislatures, seeUnicameralism.For two-chamber legislatures, seeBicameralism.For three-chamber legislatures, seeTricameralism.
Not to be confused withNeocameralism.

Cameralism(German:Kameralismus) was a German science ofpublic administrationin the 18th and early 19th centuries that aimed at strong management of a centralizedeconomyfor the benefit mainly of thestate.[1]The discipline in its most narrow definition concerned the management of the state's finances. Throughout the 18th and the first half of the 19th century, cameralism was influential in Northern European states — for example, inPrussiaandSweden— and its academics and practitioners were pioneers in economic, environmental, and administrative knowledge and technology; for example, cameralist accounting, still used inpublic financetoday.[2][3]

The growing power of centralized state control necessitated centralized systematic information on the nation. A major innovation was the collection, use and interpretation of numerical and statistical data, ranging from trade statistics, harvest reports, and death notices to population censuses. Starting in the 1760s, officials in France and Germany began increasingly to rely on quantitative data for systematic planning, especially regarding long-term economic growth. It combined theutilitarianagenda of "enlightened absolutism"with the new ideas being developed in economics. In Germany and France, the trend was especially strong in cameralism andphysiocracy.[4]According to David F. Lindenfeld, it was divided into three: public finance,OeconomieandPolizei.HereOeconomiedid not exactly mean 'economics', nor didPolizeimean 'public policy' in the modern senses.[5][clarification needed]

Cameral, oeconomie, and polizei[edit]

Cameralism distinguished between three subfields: cameral, oeconomie, and polizei (orPolicey). Cameral, orCameralwissenschaftdesignated the science of public finance, administered for the state's benefit.Oeconomiewas not strictly economic, but designated all that encompassed the relationship between the state and society, with a goal of certain social outcomes.Polizeireferred to the actual implementation of government policy- in a way it was the study of tools that the government might use.[6]

Influence on early modern development[edit]

Cameralism as a science is closely connected with the development ofbureaucracyin theearly modern periodbecause it was a method aimed at increasing the efficiency of cameralists – not only referring to the academics devoted to the science but to those employed in theKammer,the state administration.[7]Cameralism was associated with the early modern term oeconomics, which had a broader meaning than the modern term economics as it entailed the stewardship ofhouseholds,both public, private and by extension the state itself. Thus, oeconomics was a broader domain in which the investigation of nature merged seamlessly with concerns for material and moral well-being, in which the inter-dependence of urban and rural productivity was appreciated and stewarded, in which "improvement" was simultaneously directed toward increasing the yields of agriculture, manufacturing andsocial responsibility.[8]

This further shaped cameralism as a wide discipline aimed at creating an overview of knowledge needed by an enlightened administrator. It also illustrates that practitioners of cameralism were a heterogeneous group that not only served the interest of the state but also that of the growing cadres of academics, scientists and technological experts striving for the favour of the state in order to further their own interests as well as being oeconomic patriots.[9][10][11]

Cameralism and mercantilism[edit]

There are some similarities between cameralism as an economic theory andthe French mercantilist schoolofJean-Baptiste Colbert,which has sometimes caused cameralism to be viewed as a German version ofmercantilism,as both emphasisedimport substitutionand a strong state-directed economic life.[12]However, cameralism was developed with regard to thelandlockednature of many of theGerman states of the 18th centuryand attempted to substitute the wholeproduction process,whereas mercantilism relied on access toraw materialsandgoodsfrom the colonial periphery.[13]Furthermore, defining cameralism as an early modernschool of economydoes not accurately portray the scope of the body of knowledge included in cameralism.[14]

Academic status[edit]

During the 18th century cameralism spread through the lands of Prussia, theHoly Roman Empireand beyond. Professorial chairs in Cameralism were also created in Sweden andDenmark–Norway[3][15]Foremost among the professors in cameralism wasJohann Heinrich Gottlob Justi(1717-1771), who linked Cameralism and the idea of natural law with each other. However, most cameralists were practitioners, not academics, and worked in the burgeoning bureaucracies sometimes supporting and other times shunning the science.[16]Whether Cameralism was a technology that was applied to the different branches of the state and the economy decisively shaping it or whether it was a university science has been a major debate in modern research of Cameralism. Much debate has traditionally centered on exactly which writings classify as Cameralism.[17]However, the work of Keith Tribe, who holds cameralism to be a university science disconnected from the actual activities of the administrators, sparked a counter-reaction and shifted the debate to include the practitioners of Cameralism.[18][19]The shift is evident in the work of David Lindenfeld and Andre Wakefield, which illustrates the dynamics between theory and practice among cameralists.[9][20]

Although the precise legacy and nature of Cameralism remains disputed, it has affected modern public finance, not only by shaping the formation of state administration but also by giving rise to cameralistic accounting, a particular system predominately used in the German public sector which has outlived the rest of the science. The system has been deemed suitable for bookkeeping under conditions posed by public enterprises or services, such as constructing and maintaining infrastructure, and providing healthcare or education, since these services, if paid for, constitute a form of indirect taxation rather than a transaction on an open market.[21]

Justi based much of his inspiration for cameralistic studies to contemporary accounts of the Chinese imperial bureaucracy. The growth of cameralist studies, which played an important role in Prussian civil service training, may be traced to Justi's admiration for theImperial examinationsof China.[22]Justi, like other cameralists, also lauded many Chinese public policies apart from its administrative system.[23]

Cameralism in Prussia[edit]

This article is part ofa serieson
Conservatism in Germany
Ideologies
Principles
History
Intellectuals
Literature
Politicians
Parties
Active

Defunct

Organizations
Media
Related topics

The first academic chairs in the cameral sciences were created at the Prussian Universities ofHalleandFrankfurt an der Oder,in 1727, byFrederick William I,who perceived a need for greater administrative skill in the growing Prussian bureaucracy.[9]Cameralist teachings departed from the traditional legal and experience-based education usually given to civil servants and focused instead on a broad overview of classical philosophy, natural sciences and economic practices such as husbandry, farming, mining and accounting.[24]However, provision of a cameralist education was also directed towards the gentry as a way to instill the values of thrift and prudence among landowners, thus increasing incomes from their estates.[25]Prussian cameralism was focused on the state, enhancing its efficiency and increasing its revenue through strengthening the power of the developing bureaucracy, by means of standardisation of both the bureaucracy’s own practices as well as the economy, enabling greater extraction of wealth.[26]There is, however, considerable debate about whether cameralist policy reflected the stated goals of academic cameralism.

Cameralism in Sweden[edit]

This article is part ofa serieson
Conservatism in Sweden
Ideologies
Principles
History
Intellectuals
Politicians
Parties
Active

Defunct

Organisations
Media
Active

Former

Related topics

Cameralism gained traction in Sweden after the country had lost most of its possessions inPomeraniaand theBalticregion after its defeat in theGreat Northern War.[27]The Swedish example shows how cameralism, as a part of the early modern concept of economy, gave rise to a wide range of activity today associated with public and social policy. Around the highly developed Swedish bureaucracy coalesced a structure of entrepreneurs, educators and scientists that strove to mobilise the resources of the country for the betterment of the population and strengthening of the state.[28]Cameralism in this sense fostered a cadre of naturalists and administrators serving as experts engaging in economic activity, that were not necessarily administrative officials, although, associated with the state and utilising the well developed administration.[13]In Sweden, this is exemplified by the botanistCarl Linnaeusand his pupils, who were prominent advocates of cameralism and strove both to cultivate foreign cash crops such as tea and theMulberry tree,on the leaves of which thesilk wormfeeds, and to find domestic substitute for imports such as coffee, projects that even though they were failures entrenched the role of the scientist and the expert as a useful instrument of state interests.[13]

Cameralist theorists[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^"Definition of cameralism in English".Oxford Dictionaries.Oxford University Press. Archived fromthe originalon January 1, 2019.An economic theory prevalent in 18th-cent. Germany, which advocated a strong public administration managing a centralized economy primarily for the benefit of the state.
  2. ^Koerner, Lisbet (1999).Linnaeus: Nature and Nation.Harvard University Press.ISBN9780674005655.
  3. ^abMonsen 2002,pp. 39–72.
  4. ^Lars Behrisch, "Statistics and Politics in the 18th Century."Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung(2016) 41#2: 238-257.onlineArchived2018-12-14 at theWayback Machine
  5. ^Lindenfeld (1997),pp. 18–19.
  6. ^Fonsesca, Gonçalo."The Cameralists".www.hetwebsite.net.Archivedfrom the original on 2023-06-06.Retrieved2023-06-06.
  7. ^Wakefield 2005,pp. 310–312, 318–319.
  8. ^Roberts 2014,p. 134.
  9. ^abcWakefield 2005,pp. 311–320.
  10. ^Roberts 2014,p. 138.
  11. ^Jonsson 2010,pp. 1342–1363.
  12. ^Lindenfeld (1997),pp. 12–13.
  13. ^abcKoerner 1994,pp. 144–169.
  14. ^Tribe 1995,pp. 10–11.
  15. ^Lindenfeld 1997,pp. 22–25.
  16. ^Wakefield 2005.
  17. ^Wakefield 2005,pp. 313–316.
  18. ^Tribe 1995,pp. 9–31.
  19. ^Wakefield 2005,pp. 316–317.
  20. ^Lindenfeld 1997.
  21. ^Monsen 2002,pp. 47–49.
  22. ^Johanna M. Menzel (1956). "The Sinophilism of J. H. G. Justi".Journal of the History of Ideas.17(3): 300–310.doi:10.2307/2707546.JSTOR2707546.
  23. ^Walter W. Davis (1983). "China, the Confucian Ideal, and the European Age of Enlightenment".Journal of the History of Ideas.44(4): 523–548.doi:10.2307/2709213.JSTOR2709213.
  24. ^Lindenfeld (1997),pp. 15–20, 22–23, 25.
  25. ^Lindenfeld (1997),pp. 16–17.
  26. ^Wakefield 2005,p. 318.
  27. ^Koerner 1994,pp. 147–148.
  28. ^Jonsson 2010,pp. 1346–1347.

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Albion Small (1909), The Cameralists.The Pioneers of German Social Policy,Chicago: The University of Chicago
  • Andre Wakefield (2009), The Disordered Police State: German Cameralism as Science and Practice
  • J. Christiaens & J. Rommel, 2006. "Governmental Accounting Reforms: Going Back Where We Belong?," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 06/398, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.

External links[edit]

  • The dictionary definition ofcameralismat Wiktionary
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cameralism&oldid=1231803578"