Anmerkungen:
In: Beckert, Jens, 2013: Are We Still Modern? Inheritance Law and the Broken Promise of the Enlightenment. In: Cunliffe, John/ Guido Erreygers (eds.), Inherited Wealth, Justice and Equality. London: Routledge, 70-80, 2012
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments June 15, 2010 erstellt
Beschreibung:
The regulation of the transfer of property mortis causa has been a major concern of social reformers since the Enlightenment. Today, by contrast, the issue of the bequest of wealth from generation to generation stirs hardly any political controversy. Since the mid-twentieth century the topic has lost much of its earlier significance in public debates. In this working paper I show that over the last forty years we can observe a backlash in key areas of inheritance law which breaks the Enlightenment’s promise to distribute wealth in society based on individual achievement rather than ascriptive criteria. Hence the question: “Are we still modern?”