- Lorenz von Stein
Lorenz von Stein (
18 November 1815 – 1890) was a Germaneconomist ,sociologist , andpublic administration scholar fromEckernförde . As an advisor toMeiji period Japan , his conservative political views influenced the wording of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan.Biography
Stein studied
philosophy andjurisprudence at the universities of Kiel, Paris and Jena.Between 1846 and 1851 Stein was a teacher at the
University of Kiel , but his advocacy ofindependence for his nativeSchleswig , then part ofDenmark , caused his dismissal.In 1846, Stein published a book titled "History of the French Social Movements from 1789 to the Present (1850)," in which he introduced the term "
social movement " into scholarly discussions. For Stein, the social movement was basically understood as a movement from society to the state, created by the unequalities in the economy, making the proletariat part of politics through representation. The book was translated into the English by Kaethe Mengelberg and published by Bedminster Press in 1964 (Cahman, 1966)From 1855, until his retirement in 1885, von Stein taught at the
University of Vienna . His work from that period is considered as the basis of the international science of public administration. He also influenced the practice ofpublic finance .In 1882, Japanese Prime Minister of Japan
Ito Hirobumi headed a delegation to Europe to study western governmental systems. The delegation went first toBerlin , where they were instructed byRudolf von Gneist , and then Vienna, where Stein was lecturing at theUniversity of Vienna . As with Gneit, Stein's message to the Japanese delegation was thatuniversal suffrage andparty politics should be avoided. Stein held that the state was above society, and that the purpose of the state was to bring aboutsocial reform , which was implemented from themonarchy down to the common people.However, Stein is best known for the fact that he applied
Hegel 'sdialectic to the area of public administration and the national economy, in order to improve the systematics of these sciences, although he did not neglect the historical aspects.Stein analyzed the class state of his time and compared it with the
welfare state . He outlined an economic interpretation of history that included concepts of theproletariat and ofclass struggle , but he rejected a revolutionary procedure. Despite a similarity of his ideas with those ofMarxism , the extent of Stein's influence onKarl Marx is uncertain. However, Marx shows by scattered remarks on von Stein that he was aware of his highly influential book from 1842 on communist thought in France. For instance inThe German Ideology (1845-46), Stein is mentioned, but only as the writer of his 1842 book. Even though von Stein, in a few cases, mentions Marx, an influence the other way around seems to be less probable.Books
* "Der Sozialismus und Communismus des heutigen Frankreich",
Leipzig 1842, second edition, 1847.
* "Die sozialistischen und kommunistischen Bewegungen seit der dritten französischen Revolution",Stuttgart , 1818.
* "Geschichte der sozialen Bewegung in Frankreich von 1789 bis auf unsre Tage",Leipzig , 1850, 3 volumes.
* "Geschichte des französischen Strafrechts",Basel , 1847.
* "Französische Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte",Basel , 1846- 1848, 3 volumes.
* "System der Staatswissenschaft", Volume 1: "Statistik",Basel , 1852; Volume 2: "Gesellschaftslehre",Basel , 1857.
* "Die neue Gestaltung der Geld- und Kreditverhältnisse in Österreich",Vienna , 1855.
* "Lehrbuch der Volkswirtschaft",Vienna , 1858; third edition as "Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie", third edition,1887.
* "Lehrbuch der Finanzwissenschaft",Leipzig , 1860; fifth edition, 1885 - 1886, 4 volumes.
* "Die Lehre vom Heerwesen",Stuttgart , 1872.
* "Verwaltungslehre",Stuttgart , 1865- 1884, 8 volumes.
* "Handbuch der Verwaltungslehre",Stuttgart , 1870; third edition, 1889, 3 volumes.References
* Werner J. Cahnman (1966). Book Review: Lorenzo Von Stein: The History of the Social Movement in France, 1789-1850; Translated by Kaethe Mengelberg. The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 71, No. 6. (May, 1966), pp. 746-747.
* Joachim Singelmann and Peter Singelmann (1986). ”Lorenz von Stein and the paradigmatic bifurcation of social theory in the nineteenth century”. The British Journal of Sociology, vol. 34, no. 3.Persondata
NAME=Stein, Lorenz von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=19th century German legal scholar
DATE OF BIRTH=18 November 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH=Eckernförde
DATE OF DEATH=23 September 1890
PLACE OF DEATH=Weidlingen
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