Germany Beyond the Stable Stat

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.

1. From Stability to Stagnation: Germany at the beginning of the Twenty-First Century Part 1: National Unification and European Integration 2. German Unification and 'Model Germany': An adventure in institutional conservatism 3.Germany and European Integration: A shifting of tectonic plates Part 2: Labour Markets, Life Styles and Political Preferences 4. New Ways of Life or Old Rigidities?: Changes in social structure and life courses and their political impact 5. The Crumbling Pillars of Social Partnership 6. Political-Economic Context and Partisan Strategies in the German Federal Elections, 1990-2002 7. The Changing Role of Political Protest Movements Part 3: Reorganisation of State and Political Economy 8. Corporate Governance and the Disintegration of Organised Capitalism in the 1990s9. The State of the Welfare State: German social policy between macroeconomic retrenchment and microeconomic recalibration 10. The Politics of Citizenship in the New Republic