The Changing Territorial Balance

Abstract

German unification has become something of a litmus test for one of the country’s most successful and most celebrated constitutional features, a deeply entrenched federalism. German federalism, far from being divisive either in the relationship between the Länder or in their dealings with central government, has in practice been based on bargaining processes facilitated by an informal consensus orientation. The increase in the number of Länder on unification from 11 to 16 (see Table 6.1) has heightened the tensions (the potential, but also the real ones) between the federal and Länder levels and among the Länder themselves. It has also added to the strain under which the Länder already have to operate, because of the threats to their autonomy through political and economic integration on the European level. Not only have fundamental questions about the distribution of competences and financial resources in the federal state re-emerged, the traditional logic of decision-making on controversial issues is in turmoil, and even the existence of the Länder in their present boundaries is being seriously questioned. The changed and changing territorial balance as a result of unification has also made political outcomes much less predictable, because competing lines of conflict overlap in the Länder’s collective decision-making process in the Bundesrat and in other institutions of cooperative federalism.