Germany: beyond the stable state

Description

From the 1960s to the 1980s, observers gave the name "Model Germany" to the Federal Republic. They saw in Germany a political-economic "model" that was able to weather many economic challenges. "Model Germany" permitted political competition, while coordinating public policy among interest associations and private businesses so that changes would only take place only in a balanced and positive way. Since the early 1990s this "German Model" has faced serious troubles. Authors in this book describe its disintegration in the past decade and probe into the causes of this. Articles argue that it is Germany's national and European integration that has triggered the model's unravelling. These processes are paralleled by tendencies in public opinion, social life styles, and political mobilization in parties, interest groups, and social movements. The strains of "model Germany" show up in the transformation of industrial relations, corporate governance structures, and social and immigration policies in Germany. Book Cover Half-Title Title Copyright Contents From Stability to Stagnation: Germany at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century VIRTU AND FORTUNA: WHAT MADE THE GERMAN SYSTEM WORK? THE GERMAN PERFORMANCE CRISIS OF THE 1990s THE ETIOLOGY OF DECLINE: WHY GERMANY HAS RUN INTO TROUBLE COPING WITH DECLINE: POLITICAL MECHANISMS GENERATING IMMOBILITY FROM STAGNATION TO REFORM? NOTES PART I NATIONAL UNIFICATION AND EUROPEAN INTEGRATION German Unification and ‘Model Germany’: An Adventure in Institutional Conservatism THE MACROECONOMICS OF GERMAN UNIFICATION The Results of Unification—A Mixed Blessing THE MICROECONOMICS OF UNIFICATION AND MODEL GERMANY Wage Concertation Wage Bargaining, Mittelstand and Industrial Policy Managing Risk through Social Insurance Education System Federalism in Unified Germany UNIFICATION AND PUBLIC OPINION CONCLUSION NOTES Germany and European Integration: A Shifting of Tectonic Plates FROM STABILITY TO CONGRUENCE: GERMANY AND THE SHAPING OF EUROPE GERMANY AND EUROPE: THE SHIFTING OF TECTONIC PLATES Domestic Change European Change The Grinding Plates COST AND BENEFIT IN GERMANY’S NEW EUROPEAN DIPLOMACY CHANGING EUROPEAN VALUES? CONCLUSIONS: GERMANY AND THE RESHAPING OF EUROPE NOTES PART II LABOUR MARKETS, LIFE STYLES AND POLITICAL PREFERENCES New Ways of Life or Old Rigidities? Changes in Social Structures and Life Courses and their Political Impact WAYS OF SOCIAL LIFE COMPARED OVER TIME The ‘Golden Age’: The 1960s and 1970s New Challenges: The 1980s and 1990s STRUCTURAL CHANGES AND POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES NOTES The Crumbling Pillars of Social Partnership SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP IN POST-WAR WEST GERMANY THE 1980s: FIRST FISSURES THE 1990s: UNIFICATION, RECESSION AND THE END OF CONSENSUS EROSION OF ORGANISATIONAL CAPACITIES THE SCHRÖDER DEADLOCK: WEAK STATE, WEAK ASSOCIATIONS OUTLOOK: FROM STABLE STATE TO STALEMATE? NOTES Political-Economic Context and Partisan Strategies in the German Federal Elections, 1990–2002 CHANGING DEMAND AND SUPPLY CONDITIONS IN GERMAN POLITICS Political Demand Conditions: Economic and Socio-Cultural Preferences Political Supply Conditions: Strategic Options and Dilemmas for Political Parties GERMAN PARTY STRATEGY AND ELECTORAL PAYOFFS, 1990–98 STRATEGIC AMBIGUITY: GERMAN PARTIES BEFORE THE 2002 ELECTION THE STRUCTURE OF THE GERMAN PARTY SYSTEM AND POLITICAL ECONOMIC COALITIONS IN THE 2002 ELECTION East-West Differences in German Partisan Alignments Regional Alignments within Western Germany Occupation, Age and Gender: Individual-Level Evidence for a Realignment of the German Electorate CONCLUSION NOTES The Changing Role of Political Protest Movements BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW POLITICAL PROTEST MOVEMENTS AND THEIR INTERPLAY WITH ESTABLISHED POLITICS Mapping Protest Activities Volume of Protest Themes of Protest Forms of Action Protests in Eastern and Western Germany THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN PROTEST MOVEMENTS AND ESTABLISHED ACTORS The Years of Rage Bridging the Gap: The Kohl Era until the Wende (1982/83 to 1989) In Search of a New Model: From the Collapse of East German Socialism to the Present POLICY IMPACT AND STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATIONS The Impact and Limitations of Movement Politics Transformations of the Movement Sector Towards a New Political Constellation? CONCLUSION NOTES PART III REORGANISATION OF STATE AND POLITICAL ECONOMY The Disintegration of Organised Capitalism: German Corporate Governance in the 1990s SHAREHOLDER VALUE NETWORK DISSOLUTION Privatisation POLITICAL REFORMS THE DYNAMICS OF CHANGE NOTES The State of the Welfare State: German Social Policy between Macroeconomic Retrenchment and Microeconomic Recalibration THE GERMAN WELFARE STATE: STRUCTURAL MAKEUP, CHALLENGES AND REFORM CONSTRAINTS THE MACRO-QUANTITATIVE EVIDENCE: TRENDS AND PATTERNS OF SOCIAL EXPENDITURE, 1980–2000 GERMAN SOCIAL POLICY SINCE 1982 Kohl: 1982–98 Schröder: 1998–2002 CONCLUSION NOTES The Politics of Citizenship in the New Republic THE OLD POLITICS OF CITIZENSHIP: PRINCIPLE AND PRAGMATISM IN THE BONN REPUBLIC TOWARDS A NEW POLITICS OF CITIZENSHIP: POLITICISATION AND POLARISATION THE IMPACT OF GERMAN UNIFICATION: LEGACIES AND A NEW ‘SUBCULTURE OF RESISTANCE’ POST-UNIFICATION POLITICS OF CITIZENSHIP: A RECOGNITION OF REALITY? THE NEW POLITICS OF CITIZENSHIP BETWEEN RESISTANCE AND REALITY CONCLUSION NOTES Abstracts From Stability to Stagnation: Germany at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century, by Herbert Kitschelt and Wolfgang Streeck German Unification and ‘Model Germany’: An Adventure in Institutional Conservatism, by Helmut Wiesenthal Germany and European Integration: A Shifting of Tectonic Plates, by Charlie Jeffery and William E.Paterson New Ways of Life or Old Rigidities? Changes in Social Structures and Life Courses and their Political Impact, by Karl Ulrich Mayer and Steffen Hillmert The Crumbling Pillars of Social Partnership, by Wolfgang Streeck and Anke Hassel Political-Economic Context and Partisan Strategies in the German Federal Elections, 1990–2002, by Herbert Kitschelt The Changing Role of Political Protest Movements, by Dieter Rucht The Disintegration of Organised Capitalism: German Corporate Governance in the 1990s, by Jürgen Beyer and Martin Höppner The State of the Welfare State: German Social Policy between Macroeconomic Retrenchment and Microeconomic Recalibration, by Stephan Leibfried… The Politics of Citizenship in the New Republic, by Michael Minkenberg Notes on Contributors Index