The protestant work ethic, the spirit of enterprise and the Siegerland mentality 1

Abstract

We know that our intellectual heritage influences our approach to modern economic and social issues. Nevertheless, the history of economic thought and of political economy which forms the basis for research into the grassroots of socio-cultural development are currently outside the confines of mainstream economic analysis. Consequently, many of the results of research carried out nowadays are, unfortunate y, more likely to resemble a pamphlet on mathematical econophysics than an economic treatise. However, cultural evolution only enables us to conceive that "all the major schools of thought in economics have concomitant types of social organization. ... Substantively, what expresses growth and development in the dynamics of economic evolution is culture" (Brinkman, 1981 :xii).