Description
Book SynopsisGermany and Britain are two major European economies that have been trying to confront the challenges of globalisation in very different ways. Britain has favoured market liberal strategies; Germany has endeavoured to retain its tradition of consensualism and the strong welfare state. Focusing on the period since 1997/8, this book explores the controversies and struggles surrounding the agendas of social, economic, and political modernisation in the two countries. The New Labour governments in Britain and the Social Democratic coalition governments in Germany have been introducing a range of reform policies designed to reform the welfare state and increase the respective country''s competitiveness in the global market. In both countries, however, these policies have triggered societal resistance. The governing parties had to confront electoral setbacks, an exodus of party members, strains on the relationship with traditional political allies, and an increasingly alienated public. With
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Reform-Gridlock and Hyper-Innovation: Germany, Britain and the Project of Societal Modernisation (Ingolfur Blühdorn/Uwe Jun) Chapter 2 Radical Reformers—Defiant Electorates? Reform Policy and International Competitiveness under Schroeder And Blair (Uwe Jun) Chapter 3 Democracy, Efficiency, Futurity: Contested Objectives of Societal Reform (Ingolfur Blühdorn) Chapter 4 Democratic Deficits—Democratic Renewal: Political Detachment, Constitutional Reform and the Politics of Re-engagement in the UK (Lewis Baston) Chapter 5 Misguided Consensualism: Prospects for Reform of the Party-Dominated Federal System in Germany (Frank Decker) Chapter 6 From Corporatist Consensualism to the Politics of Commissions: German Welfare Reform and the Inefficiency of theAlliance for Jobs (Sven Jochem) Chapter 7 Efficiency versus Accountability? Modernizing Governance and Democratic Renewal in Britain, 1997-2005 (Matthew Flinders) Chapter 8 Efficiency in Political Communication and Public Management: A Comparative Analysis of New Labour and the SPD (Uwe Jun) Chapter 9 Efficiency versus Party Democracy? Political Parties and Societal Modernisation in Germany (Elmar Wiesendahl) Chapter 10 German Trade Unions: Partners for Reform or Trapped in Nested Games? (Josef Schmid and Christian Steffen) Chapter 11 Participation, Innovation and Efficiency: Social Movements and the New Genetics in Germany and the UK (Ian Welsh) Chapter 12 The Third Transformation of Democracy: On the Efficient Management of Late-modern Complexity (Ingolfur Blühdorn)
