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Varieties of Change in German Capitalism: Transforming the Rules of Corporate Control

2008; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 13; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Alemão

10.1080/13563460802436541

1469-9923

Susanne Lütz, Dagmar Eberle,

Social Policy and Reform Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes This paper presents initial findings of an ongoing research project (2005–08) on the transformation of corporate governance regulation in the EU (Germany, United Kingdom) and the United States. The project is funded by the German Research Association (DFG, No.Lu 867/1–2). An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association in Philadelphia, PA, 31 August–3 September 2006. We are indebted to John Cioffi, the participants of the discussion, a number of interview partners and the reviewers of NPE for extremely helpful comments. Suzanne Berger & Ronald Dore (eds), National Diversity and Global Capitalism (Cornell University Press, 1996); Colin Crouch & Wolfgang Streeck (eds), Political Economy of Modern Capitalism: Mapping Convergence and Diversity (Sage, 1997); Vivien A. Schmidt, The Futures of European Capitalism (Oxford University Press, 2002). See, for example, Susanne Lütz, ‘From Managed to Market Capitalism? German Finance in Transition’, German Politics, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2000), pp. 149–70; Richard Deeg, ‘Institutional Change and the Uses and Limits of Path Dependency: The Case of German Finance’, Discussion Paper 01/6, Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Köln, 2001; Kenneth Dyson & Stephen Padgett (eds), The Politics of Economic Reform in Germany: Global, Rhineland or Hybrid Capitalism? (Routledge, 2006); Gregory Jackson, ‘Corporate Governance in Germany and Japan: Liberalization Pressures and Responses during the 1990s’, in Kozo Yamamura & Wolfgang Streeck (eds), The End of Diversity? Prospects for German and Japanese Capitalism (Cornell University Press, 2003), pp. 261–305; John L. Campbell & O.K. Pedersen, ‘The Varieties of Capitalism and Hybrid Success: Denmark in the Global Economy’, Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 40, No. 3 (2007), pp. 307–32. Dagmar Eberle, ‘Corporate Governance’, in Arthur Benz, Susanne Lütz, Uwe Schimank & Georg Simonis (eds), Handbuch Governance. Theoretische Grundlagen und empirische Anwendungsfelder (VS-Verlag, 2007), p. 378; Michel Goyer, ‘Corporate Governance and the Innovation System in France’, Industry and Innovation, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2002), p. 135; Wolfgang Streeck & Martin Höpner, ‘Einleitung: Alle Macht dem Markt?’, in Wolfgang Streeck & Martin Höpner (eds), Alle Macht dem Markt? (Campus, 2003), p. 14. For the internal and external control mechanisms see Alexander Mann, Corporate Governance Systeme; Funktion und Entwicklung am Beispiel von Deutschland und Großbritannien (Duncker & Humboldt, 2003), pp. 78–98; for accounting see Jörg Baetge & Stefan Thiele, ‘Disclosure and Auditing as Affecting Corporate Governance’, in Klaus Hopt, Hideki Kanda, Mark J. Roe & Eddy Wymeersch (eds), Comparative Corporate Governance: The State of the Art and Emerging Research (Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 722; and Reinhard H. Schmidt & Marcel Tyrell, ‘Information Theory and the Role of Intermediaries in Corporate Governance’, in Klaus Hopt, Eddy Wymeersch, Hideki Kanda & Harald Baum (eds), Corporate Governance in Context: Corporations, States, and Markets in Europe, Japan, and the US (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 495–502. For the typology see Julian Franks & Colin Mayer, ‘Ownership and Control’, in Horst Siebert (ed.), Trends in Business Organization: Do Participation and Cooperation Increase Competitiveness? (Mohr, 1995); and Peter A. Hall & David W. Soskice, ‘An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism’, in Peter A. Hall & David W. Soskice (eds), Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage (Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 1–68. Richard Deeg, ‘Governance and the Nation-State in a Global Era’, in Susanne Lütz (ed.), Governance in der politischen Ökonomie: Struktur und Wandel des modernen Kapitalismus (VS-Verlag, 2006), pp. 57–106; Martin Höpner, Wer beherrscht die Unternehmen? Shareholder Value, Managerherrschaft und Mitbestimmung in Deutschland (Campus, 2003). Ulrich Jürgens, Katrin Naumann & Joachim Rupp ‘Shareholder Value in an Adverse Environment: The German Case’, Economy and Society, Vol. 29 (2000), pp. 54–79; Philipp Klages, ‘Zwischen institutioneller Innovation und Reproduktion: Zum Wandel des deutschen Corporate Governance-Systems in den 1990ern’, Berliner Journal für Soziologie, Vol. 17, No.1 (2006), pp. 37–54. Sigurt Vitols, ‘Negotiated Shareholder Value: The German Version of an Anglo-American Practice’, WZB Discussion Paper SP II 2003-25, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, Berlin, 2003. At the request of our interview partners, the interviews are quoted in the text only in coded form. For the categories of ‘displacement’ and ‘layering’, see Wolfgang Streeck & Kathleen Thelen, ‘Introduction: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies’, in Wolfgang Streeck & Kathleen Thelen (eds), Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 1–39. Bruno Amable, The Diversity of Modern Capitalism (Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 10–2. Hall & Soskice, ‘An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism’, p. 23; Reinhard H. Schmidt, ‘Corporate Governance in Germany: An Economic Perspective’, CFS Working Paper No. 2003/36, Center for Financial Studies, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt/Main, 2003, p. 9. John Cioffi, ‘Expansive Retrenchment: The Regulatory Politics of Corporate Governance Reform and the Foundations of Finance Capitalism’, paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA, 28–31 August 2003, p. 9; Shawn Donnelly, Andrew Gamble, John Parkinson, Gavin Kelly & Gregory Jackson, The Public Interest and the Company in Germany and Britain (Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society, 2001), p. 11. John Cioffi, ‘Restructuring “Germany Inc.”: The Politics of Company and Takeover Law Reform in Germany and the European Union’, Working Paper PEIF-1, Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2002. Cioffi, ‘Restructuring “Germany Inc.”’, pp. 14–8; Nicholas J. Ziegler, ‘Corporate Governance and the Politics of Property Rights in Germany’, Politics & Society, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2000), pp. 195–221. Interviews D11, D18, D21; Ziegler, ‘Corporate Governance and the Politics of Property Rights in Germany’, pp. 203–4. Cioffi, ‘Restructuring “Germany Inc.”’, pp. 18–9; Handelsblatt, 22 April 1997. Deutscher Bundestag, Protokoll der 74. Sitzung des Rechtsausschusses am 29. Januar 1997, 13. Wahlperiode, Bundestagsdrucksache 1515/797 (1997), pp. 25–8, 512–29. Jürgen Beyer & Martin Höpner, ‘The Disintegration of Organised Capitalism: German Corporate Governance in the 1990s’, West European Politics, Vol. 26, No. 4 (2003), pp. 179–98; Susanne Lütz, ‘Von der Infrastruktur zum Markt? Der deutsche Finanzsektor zwischen Deregulierung und Reregulierung’, in Paul Windolf (ed.), Finanzmarktkapitalismus: Analysen zum Wandel von Produktionsregimen, (VS-Verlag, 2005), pp. 294–315. Interview D21; Cioffi, ‘Restructuring “Germany Inc.”’, p. 17; Deutscher Bundestag, Protokoll der 74. Sitzung des Rechtsausschusses, pp. 30–50, 538. Adrian Cadbury, ‘The Corporate Governance Agenda’, Corporate Governance, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2000), pp. 9–11; Robert A. Monks & Nell Minow, Corporate Governance (Blackwell Publishing, 2004), pp. 144–67, 298. Interviews D37, US8, US15. Handelsblatt, 5 May 2004. Uwe H. Schneider & Christian Strenger, ‘Die “Corporate Governance-Grundsätze” der Grundsatzkommission Corporate Governance’, Die Aktiengesellschaft, Vol. 45, No. 3 (2000), pp. 106–9. Interviews D6, D31; CalPERS (California Public Employees' Retirement System), Germany Market Principles (1998), http://www.calpers-governance.org/principles/international/germany/page01.asp (accessed 15 December 2007). Berliner Initiativkreis German Code of Corporate Governance, German Code of Corporate Governance, Berlin, 2002. Interviews D16, D21, D24, D26, D30. Shortly before, the federal government had undertaken an important step to boost the disentanglement of ‘Deutschland AG’. In the course of a company tax reform, it abolished the capital gains tax on the sale of share blocks held by corporations. This tax had hampered the sale of larger holdings (Beyer & Höpner, ‘The Disintegration of Organised Capitalism’, pp. 190–3). Interviews D2, D6, D21, D33. Interviews D2, D14, D22; SdK (Schutzgemeinschaft der Kapitalanleger), Die Neuregelungen des Transparenz- und Publizitätsgesetzes (TransPuG), http://www.sdk.org/pressemitteilung.php?action=detail&pmID=213 (accessed 19 December 2007). Ulrich Seibert, ‘Im Blickpunkt: Der Deutsche Corporate Governance Kodex ist da’, Betriebs Berater, Vol. 57, No. 12 (2002), pp. 581–4. Gerhard Cromme, Ausführungen von Dr. Gerhard Cromme, Vorsitzender der Regierungskommission Deutscher Corporate Governance-Kodex anlässlich der Veröffentlichung des Entwurfs Deutscher Corporate Governance-Kodex (2001), http://www.corporate-governance-code.de/ger/download/RedeDrCromme.pdf (accessed 20 December 2007); Klaus J. Hopt & Patrick C. Leyens, ‘Board Models in Europe: Recent Developments of Internal Corporate Governance Structures in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy’, ECGI – Law Working Paper No. 18/2004, European Corporate Governance Institute, Brussels, 2004, p. 7. CalPERS, Germany Market Principles. Interviews D2, D30, D31; Christian Strenger, ‘Erfahrungen mit der Umsetzung von Corporate Governance in Deutschland’, in Rüdiger von Rosen (ed.), Corporate Governance: Nutzen und Umsetzung (Deutsches Aktieninstitut, 2001), pp. 59–60. Regierungskommission Corporate Governance, Unternehmensführung – Unternehmenskontrolle – Modernisierung des Aktienrechts: Bericht der Regierungskommission ‘Corporate Governance’ (2001), http://www.jura.uni-duesseldorf.de/dozenten/noack/texte/cg/komplett.doc (accessed 18 December 2007). Interviews D21, D24, D29; BMF (Bundesministerium der Finanzen), Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verbesserung der Haftung für falsche Kapitalmarktinformationen, Berlin, 2004. Ulrich Seibert & Carsten Schütz, ‘Der Referentenentwurf eines Gesetzes zur Unternehmensintegrität und Modernisierung des Anfechtungsrechts – UMAG’, Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht, Vol. 25, No. 6 (2004), pp. 252–8. BMJ (Bundesministerium der Justiz), Bundesregierung stärkt Aktionärsrechte, press release, 17 November 2004. Handelsblatt, 18 November 2004, p. 26. European Commission, ‘Commission Recommendation of 14 December 2004 Fostering an Appropriate Regime for the Remuneration of Directors of Listed Companies’ (2004/913/EC), Official Journal of the European Union, L 385, 29 December 2004, pp. 55–9; European Commission, ‘Commission Recommendation of 15 February 2005 on the Role of Non-executive or Supervisory Directors of Listed Companies and on the Committees of the (Supervisory) Board’ (2005/162/EC), Official Journal of the European Union, L 52, 25 February 2005, pp. 51–63. Interviews D6, D20, D31, D32; Gerhard Spindler, ‘Die Empfehlungen der EU für den Aufsichtsrat und ihre deutsche Umsetzung im Corporate Governance Kodex’, Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht, Vol. 26, No. 46 (2005), pp. 2033–45. BDA (Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände) & BDI (Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie), Mitbestimmung Modernisieren: Bericht der Kommission Mitbestimmung, Berlin, 2004. Handelsblatt, 20 December 2006; Kommission zur Modernisierung der deutschen Unternehmensmitbestimmung, Bericht der wissenschaftlichen Mitglieder der Kommission mit Stellungnahmen der Vertreter der Unternehmen und der Vertreter der Arbeitnehmer, December 2006. Börsen-Zeitung, 2 June 2007, p. 8. Financial Times Deutschland, 4 June 2008. Interview D29; Financial Times, 2 May 2006, 20 January 2007; Handelsblatt, 4 May 2005. Christopher Nobes & Robert Parker, Comparative International Accounting (Prentice Hall, 2004), pp. 22–3. Handelsblatt, 7 April 2008. DPR (Deutsche Prüfstelle für Rechnungslegung), ‘Trägerverein für die privatrechtlich organisierte Prüfstelle zur Überwachung der Rechnungslegung gegründet’, press release, 14 May 2004. See Interview D11 and BMJ, ‘Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verbesserung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit deutscher Konzerne an internationalen Kapitalmärkten und zur Erleichterung der Aufnahme von Gesellschafterdarlehen (Kapitalaufnahmeerleichterungsgesetz – KapAEG)’, Referentenentwurf BMJ 3507/17, 27 November 1996, pp. 8–10; on the IASC see Sebastian Botzem & Sigrid Quack, ‘Contested Rules and Shifting Boundaries: International Standard-setting in Accounting’, in Marie-Laure Djelic & Kerstin Sahlin-Andersson (eds), Transnational Governance: Institutional Dynamics of Regulation (Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 266–86; and Ian P. Dewing & Peter O. Russell, ‘Accounting, Auditing and Corporate Governance of European Listed Countries: EU Policy Developments Before and After Enron’, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 42, No. 2 (2004), pp. 289–319. European Commission, Accounting Harmonisation: A New Strategy vis-à-vis International Harmonisation, COM 95 (508) (1995); Karel van Hulle, ‘From Accounting Directives to International Accounting Standards’, in Christian Leuz, Dieter Paff & Anthony Hopwood (eds), The Economics and Politics of Accounting (Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 355–7. Handelsblatt, 12 July 1995, p. 29; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 December 1995, p. 23. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 28 October 1997, p. 19; Gemeinsamer Arbeitskreis des DIHT, BdB, BDA, BDI, GDV für Fragen der Rechnungslegung, Stellungnahme vom 24.06.1996, Köln/Bonn, 1996, pp. 5–6. ‘Bonner Narretei’, Capital, No. 5 (1997), pp. 26–8; Gemeinsamer Arbeitskreis, Stellungnahme vom 24.06.1996, p. 3; Handelsblatt, 2 December 1996, p. 29. Deutscher Bundestag, Beschlußempfehlung und Bericht des Rechtsausschusses zu dem Gesetzentwurf der Bundesregierung ‘Kapitalaufnahmeerleichterungsgesetz – KapAEG’ vom 12.02.98, Bundestagsdrucksache 13/9909 (1998). Interview D23; BMJ, Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Verbesserung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit deutscher Konzerne an internationalen Kapitalmärkten, pp. 12–13; Christoph Ernst, ‘Überblick über die Änderungen des Handelsgesetzbuches zur Rechnungslegung und Abschlussprüfung’, in Dietrich Dörner, Dieter Menold & Norbert Pfitzer (eds), Reform des Aktienrechts, der Rechnungslegung und Prüfung: KonTraG – KapAEG – EuroEG – StückAG (Schäffer-Poeschel Verlag, 1999), p. 326. Interview D34; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 February 1998, p. 13; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 7 July 1998, p. 22. Interview D34. IOSCO (International Organization of Securities Commissions), Technical Committee: Statement on the Development and Use of International Financial Reporting Standards in 2005 (IOSCO, February 2005). Interview EU15. European Parliament & Council of the European Union, Regulation (EC) No 1606/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 July 2002 on the Application of International Accounting Standards (2002); Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 February 2001, p. 19, 11 June 2001, p. 32, 20 June 2001, p. 31. Financial Times, 27 May 2002, p. 21; Financial Times Deutschland, 19/20/21 April 2002, p. 21. Financial Times, 15 November 2007. Interview D1. BDA Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände) & BDI (Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie) & DIHK (Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag), Stellungnahme zu dem Entwurf eines Gesetzes zur Kontrolle von Unternehmensabschlüssen (Bilanzkontrollgesetz – BilKoG), Berlin, 28 May 2004; BdB (Bundesverband deutscher Banken), Stellungnahme zum Regierungsentwurf eines Gesetzes zur Kontrolle von Unternehmensabschlüssen (Bilanzkontrollgesetz – BilKoG), Berlin, May 2004; IdW (Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer), Stellungnahme zum Referentenentwurf eines Gesetzes zur Kontrolle von Unternehmensabschlüssen (Bilanzkontrollgesetz – BilKoG), Berlin, 19 January 2004. Streeck & Thelen, ‘Introduction’. Kathleen Thelen, ‘Timing and Temporality in the Analysis of Institutional Evolution and Change’, Studies in American Political Development, Vol. 14, No. 1 (2000), pp. 101–8; Klages, ‘Zwischen institutioneller Innovation und Reproduktion’. Martin Höpner, European Corporate Governance Reform and the German Party Paradox, Discussion Paper 03/4, Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung, Köln, 2003, p. 32. Peter A. Hall, ‘Stabilität und Wandel in den Spielarten des Kapitalismus’, in Jens Beckert, Bernhard Ebbinghaus, Anke Hassel & Philip Manow (eds), Transformationen des Kapitalismus (Campus, 2006), p. 196.