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The role of government in the information society: lessons from Germany

Institute for Information Economics, Cologne

In view of the turbulent development of electronic information markets one could – rashly perhaps – arrive at the conclusion that this area of economic activity could without hesitation be left to the operation of market forces (supply and demand). But is this really the case? Have important social and wider aspects not been taken into consideration? In order to put this question into its historical context, the development of national information policy over the past 30 or 40 years will be outlined. Taking accepted criteria used in fiscal science, consideration will be given to which part of information provision could be organized most efficiently on a free enterprise basis and in which part of this sector of the economy the state has to accept some responsibility. A responsibility which extends beyond merely creating the framework conditions for the functioning of a free enterprise system. Finally, from these fiscal science criteria, different phases of German information policy will be examined critically under the magnifying glass, from the beginning of the 1960s to date (up to 1990 those of the then German Federal Republic). This article is based on a paper given at the International Conference ‘Information Provision – Policy and Strategy’ 28 June–July 1998 at the Frankenwarte Academy, Würzburg (Germany).

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