The Crisis and Germany: The Trading State Unleashed

Armingeon, Klaus; Baccaro, Lucio (2015). The Crisis and Germany: The Trading State Unleashed. In: Schneider, Volker; Eberlein, Burkard (eds.) Complex Democracy. Varieties, Crisis, and Transformations (pp. 165-183). Wiesbaden: Springer VS 10.1007/978-3-319-15850-1_11

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Based on interviews with the main German actors and on secondary sources, the article examines the recent development of the German political economy, and the German strategy vis-à-vis the Euro zone. Germany is a trading state whose economic growth is strongly export-led. Until the years 1990s, strong institutional rigidities, both in industrial relations and in the welfare state, contributed to reconcile export growth with household consumption, thus keeping the German “tiger” on a leash. From the early 1990s on, however, both industrial relations and social protections have been strongly liberalized, thus further stimulating external competitiveness and reducing the role of consumption in the German growth model. The unleashed trading state shapes the German response to the Euro crisis and the austerity policies that Germany imposes to Europe. These policies are strongly supported by political parties, social actors, and public opinion in Germany, and the likelihood that they change in the near future is minimal.

Item Type:

Book Section (Book Chapter)

Division/Institute:

03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Political Science

UniBE Contributor:

Armingeon, Klaus

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science

ISBN:

978-3-319-15849-5

Publisher:

Springer VS

Language:

English

Submitter:

Beatrice Romann

Date Deposited:

01 Mar 2016 15:20

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:51

Publisher DOI:

10.1007/978-3-319-15850-1_11

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.76107

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/76107

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