Peter Bofinger

1 Abstracts WSI-M 7/08 Peter Bofinger The decade of denationalisation In this first decade of the new millennium the German state has experienced a pronounced loss of financial resources and political competency – in both a historical and international comparison. The ratio of government expenditure and revenue to gross national product has dropped. This has led to considerable deficits in terms of public expenditure on education and infrastructure. In addition, the so-called ‘Reform of Federalism I’ has meant that the Federal Republic has lost responsibility in the field of education policy – a decisively important area for the future of the country and an extremely dangerous step in the face of advancing globalisation. There are already critical deficits to be noted in vital future investments. A further dismantling of state responsibility and the welfare state is threatened by the planned introduction of ‘Reform of Federalism II’ and the proposals for an unconditional basic income. Only through more transparency, and comprehensive international benchmarking of government expenditure – above all in the area of growth and sustainable expenditure – can it be made clear to the public at large just how far the role of government has been reduced in this country – and the subsequent implications for German society. Günther Schmid Dissolving boundaries of employment – Extending social security This essay identifies in retrospect and also in international comparison how far the dissolution of the standard employment relationship has advanced. It emphasises that it is less the erosion of the dependent and open-ended full-time employment contract, but rather the increase of labour force participation in the form of atypical employment relationships that presents a challenge to the development of new forms of social security. Possibilities of extending social security are discussed and justified, such as including self-employed persons into the mandatory social insurance scheme, establishing basic security above the poverty line, profitsharing, minimum standards, minimum wages and flexible pension entitlements. The essay concludes by proposing the establishment of a personal development account as a complement to conventional active labour market policy measures and by arguing for the extension of unemployment insurance to employment insurance. Only such an extension makes it possible to hold the balance between the required taming of “the moral hazard” and the previously much neglected encouragement of “innovative risk taking.” Christine Trampusch Social policy: progressive and regressive reforms and new assessment of solidarity During the coalition of the Social Democrats and the Green Party, the reform blockade in German social policy was overcome. This article uses that development as a starting point to identify both its socio-political premises as well as consequences. The paper argues that the structural change in the social policy arena or, more specifically, the transformed relation between parties and associations, caused the resolution of the blockade. As regards consequences, the article describes both a political and a societal aspect. The political consequence is the return of corporatism free political power which emerged during the Grand Coalition. This took place in a sequence of welfare state reducing and expanding reforms. Among the societal consequences is the new assessment of solidarity. The willingness to sacrifice self-interests in order to improve the collective welfare is based on new principles. Recent debates in pension politics can be interpreted as a renewed assessment of intergenerational solidarity. There is a trend in collective bargaining policy to finance and regulate social benefits. This leads to a shift of solidarity from the state to collective bargaining agreements.

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Martin Kronauer The insecure middle-class – a split society? The starting point for this article is the current debate on the future of the so-called middleclass in society. This discussion is placed in the context of the experience of injustice and insecurity that in the meantime have become widespread amongst the large majority of the population and through polls have been repeatedly documented. These experiences are interpreted as a signal in society for the erosion of the ‘protection of the perspectives of life’ – and the social-material basis of democracy. Whether a policy of reducing social inequality and insecurity is possible – or whether the levels of social inequality and division will increase – will depend on how the wage and salary dependent middle-class reacts to the insecurity currently being experienced. The article examines what is meant by ‘the middleclass’, how insecurity and injustice are seen to overlap and what the implications are in a socio-political context. Michael Schumann The struggle for rationalisation and the search for new clarity For almost fifteen years the area of company rationalisation has been considered ‘unclear’. The starting point for the difficult assessment of the situation was the break with the Taylorist design of work in the 1970s. The alternative models of ‘new production concepts’ in the 1980s and ‘lean production’ in the 1990s dominated. In the context of company rationalisation a plurality of concepts emerged with heterogeneous labour sequences, which gained additional impetus under the changed conditions of globalised finance market capitalism. These factors gave rise to the lack of clarity which is apparent up to the present time. At the same time – and this is the thesis of the article – a ‘new clarity’ can be observed. When the analysis is differentiated according to the various arenas in which rationalisation takes place at company level, i.e. employment, performance and labour policy, and according to the particular design logic – then heterogeneity becomes apparent. This enables the trade unions to set a focus in their efforts towards a revitalising of rationalising-oriented policy. Alex Demirović Codetermination and perspectives of economic democracy The institution of codetermination within companies is specific to Germany and has always been a controversial subject. Codetermination is the product of conflicts and compromises between equity owners and employees and their interest representation. The current neoliberal restructuring of society is the attempt on the side of equity for it to liberate itself from such compromises – which is equal to an attack on codetermination. But even amongst trade unions there are estimates that within the whole spectrum of codetermination only the establishment level codetermination has any future, because it functions cooperatively towards a modernisation of the economy. Without establishment level codetermination the valuable experiences gained in competent participation and responsibility of both employees and trade union representatives in steering the apparatus of social production and economic democratic aims would be lost. Against this background the article proposes an updating of economic democratic aims which in the past were bound to codetermination and the democratic awareness of the trade unions. Only in this way can previously gained social achievements be maintained. Jutta Allmendinger/Marcel Helbig On the necessity for reform in the educational system Economy and social justice: two perspectives that are often diametrically opposed to each other. In the current debate about the necessity for a comprehensive reform of the German

3 educational system, however, these two perspectives happen to coincide. In order to ensure future economic growth Germany needs a large pool of well educated persons. As the educational potential of children from families with a high educational background is almost fully tapped, it is an economic necessity to provide considerably more children from families with a low educational background with higher education. Here, interests of economic research and research on inequality of opportunity meet. This article seeks to identify the inequalities of the German educational system and to deduce action alternatives suitable for reducing these inequalities. The article does not just deal with the well-known variables of gender, social- and migration background, but seeks to show how the resulting inequalities are enhanced by the federal educational system. It then concludes by pointing out why the moment for educational reform has rarely been better than today. Birgit Riegraf Gender and difference in organisations: gender politics and organisational change Social inequality and social difference in organisations is based on gender, class, or ethnic group, but also age or disability. This can be observed in daily interaction and communication, as well as in organisational structures. Dualistic conceptions of man and woman are present in organisation structures and are practised daily. Preconceptions, stereotypes and polarisation help to build hierarchies in organisations and legitimise social status. Measures such as gender mainstreaming or gender diversity processes are supposed to act as counter measures. However it can be observed that the enactment of these measures is frequently counter productive. Putting these measures into place demands some reflection on the categories of ‘gender’ and ‘difference’. The article demonstrates that efforts to improve gender equality in organisations remain without success when the contextual conditions of gender politics are not taken into consideration.