Dominic Heinz

Varieties of Joint Decision Making: The Second Federal Reform

Germany recently experienced another federal reform, shortly after a previous modification to the German federal system. Has the second federal reform brought substantial change instead of the gradual change that literature on joint decision making would lead us to expect? This article analyses the reform in three stages: agenda setting, negotiation, and ratification; and suggests that at best the new restrictions upon public debt brought about by the second federal reform can be seen as a substantial change, but only if actors comply with them. Furthermore, this note argues that varieties of joint decision making can be identified in German constitutional policy, as they can in German public policy and EU policies. Patterns of joint decision making vary, depending on agenda setting and negotiations, so that the article argues for a differentiated view of joint decision making, the joint decision trap and exits from the joint decision trap.

Birds of the Same Feather: Federalism and Decentralisation in Germany

Germany was described in the past as a ‘unitary federal state’ (Hesse, Der unitarische Bundesstaat. Karlsruhe: C. F. Muller, 1962) or even as a ‘unitary state in disguise’ (Abromeit, Der verkappte Einheitsstaat. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1992) underlining central politics in Germany. But what role does then decentralisation play in German politics? The chapter shows that central politics is not the only facet of Germany. Furthermore is decentralisation rooted in German history and still plays a role in any facet of the state like the territorial structure, the public service and financing. At the same time, decentralisation is not stable throughout time. Hence the text shows the dynamic development of political decentralisation during German history since 1949. This view on decentralisation in Germany highlights neither a ‘unitary federal state’, nor a ‘unitary state in disguise’.

La représentation politique des migrants en Allemagne

Depuis l’apres-guerre, la societe allemande a accueilli de nombreux migrants. Le cadre legal de l’immigration a change et, malgre un deficit linguistique, les immigres accomplissent aujourd’hui leur integration politique au sein des differents parlements. Meme si le pourcentage d’elus issus de l’immigration reste moindre que celui des immigres dans la population, ces elus symbolisent une societe devenue multiethnique et profitent de partis de gauche plus ouverts que ceux de droite. Leur activite d’elu se revele plus intense que celle de leurs confreres et elle s’oriente vers les questions relatives a l’immigration sans pour autant s’y limiter.