Frank Bönker

Incrementalism and reform waves: The case of social service reform in the Federal Republic of Germany*

Abstract This article elaborates on the reform of personal social services in the Federal Republic of Germany. It gives an overview of almost five decades of social service reform with a view to substantiating two central claims. First, social service reform in the Federal Republic has now entered a critical stage; both in breadth and depth, current changes are equalled only by the reforms of the late 1960s and early 1970s. These reforms will fundamentally change the German welfare state by transforming the traditional arrangements of service provision. Second, social service reform efforts in the Federal Republic have been characterized by a particular kind of policy cycle. Reforms have not been driven by changes in government, nor have they followed an incremental pattern. Instead, periods of incremental and fragmented reform have alternated with periods of sweeping transformation brought about by fairly broad reform coalitions.

Remunicipalisation Revisited: Long-Term Trends in the Provision of Local Public Services in Germany

This chapter contributes to the ongoing debate on the ‘remunicipalisation’ of local public services by looking back at more than 100 years of service provision in Germany and a broad range of local public services. The analysis shows that there is indeed some evidence of a ‘return of the pendulum’. However, there are strong sectoral differences, and the extent of remunicipalisation is only partly related to the degree of the original privatisation. Moreover, even in the sectors that have experienced a strong renaissance in local authority involvement there are striking differences between the ‘post-liberal’ present and the ‘pre-liberal’ past. Both these observations demonstrate that the recent trend towards remunicipalisation should thus be interpreted as a partial re-balancing rather than a fundamental rollback of market reforms.

Sozialstaatlichkeit im Übergang: Entwicklungslinien der bundesdeutschen Sozialpolitik in den Neunzigerjahren

Die Sozialstaatlichkeit war ein wesentlicher Teil des Inventars der Bonner Republik. Nicht nur, dass sie heute, anders als in den 50er Jahren (vgl. die beruhmte Rechtsvs. Sozialstaatsdebatte), unangefochten zu den konstitutiven Verfassungsgrundsatzen zahlt. Man kann wohl auch sagen, dass die alte Bundesrepublik einen gewichtigen Teil ihrer Akzeptanz und Legitimitat im Innern wie ihrer Attraktivitat nach ausen jener Kombination aus ‘Wirtschaftswunder und Sozialstaat verdankt, die gemeinhin unter dem Schlagwort ‘Soziale Marktwirtschaft’ firmiert (Roller 1992; Blum/Zacher 1989). In den Augen von breiten Teilen der Bevolkerung, gerade auch der ostdeutschen, ist die Bundesrepublik ganz wesentlich Sozialstaat. Oftmals verbindet sich mit dieser Wahrnehmung die gern gepflegte, historischempirisch allerdings nur teilweise akkurate Vorstellung, der Sozialstaat sei eine heimische Erfindung und der deutsche Sozialstaat bis heute ‘der beste der Welt’ (Norbert Blum, zit. nach Alber 1998a, S. 214, Fn. 30). Als jungster Beleg fur diese tiefe Verankerung des Sozialstaates im gesellschaftlichen Bewusstsein mogen die Ergebnisse der Bundestagswahlen 1998 dienen: Gemas einer in Regierung und Opposition gleichermasen einflussreichen Interpretation kam es wesentlich dadurch zum Regierungswechsel (und damit zur in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik erstmaligen Abwahl einer amtierenden Bundesregierung durch das unmittelbare Votum der Wahler), dass sich eine breite Mehrheit der Wahler von dem Vorwurf der sozialdemokratischen Opposition uberzeugen lies, die christlich-liberale Bundesregierung habe ‘den Boden der Sozialstaatlichkeit’ verlassen.

Public Sector Reforms and Local Governments in Germany: The Case of Local Social Policy

At the local level, public sector reforms at the different tiers of government intersect. The activities of local governments are shaped not only by their own reform initiatives, but are also strongly influenced by reforms at the state or the federal level. Federal or state legislation can force local governments to adopt or to terminate certain measures. It can also have a more indirect influence by shaping the fiscal situation of local governments or by determining the “problem load” they are facing. In the German case, this indirect influence is particularly strong in the field of social policy. For local governments have traditionally provided the “net of last social resort” and have thus been heavily exposed to “unresolved” social problems of all kinds.

Evaluating Personal Social Services in Germany

The chapter provides an overview of evaluation in youth welfare services and elder care in Germany. The authors document the use of a fairly broad repertoire of evaluation approaches, ranging from monitoring and classic evaluation research to benchmarking. In doing so, they pay special attention to mandatory requirements for the government to commission or to provide regular reports on developments in the field, as well as to the rise and limits of benchmarking. Wollmann and Bonker show that the evaluation of personal social services in Germany continues to neglect the service quality and policy and service outcomes and argue that classical evaluation research still holds the greatest potential to fill this gap.