Germany

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Background After World War II Germany was divided into four zones under France, Britain, the United States and the USSR. The former three combined their zones into one region while the USSR imposed communist rule over its zone. This led to the creation of East and West Germany. In West Germany a new constitution was created called the Basic Law. The state legislatures of the Allied forces approved this constitution. It established a parliamentary democracy and a federation of states. The reunification of Germany took place in 1990 with the Basic Law being applied as the national constitution. Three independent levels can be distinguished as a basic layout in the structure of administration in Germany: Federal, Länder (state or country) and local (municipal). The Federal and Länder administrative authorities are considered institutions of ‘direct’ State administration while the local authorities are considered ‘indirect’ state administration. There is a bicameral Parliament consisting of the Federal Assembly or Bundestag (598 seats) elected by popular vote every four years and the Federal Council or Bundesrat (69 seats) made up of representatives of the States (Land). There are 16 Länder made up of 13 territorial Länder and three ‘city states’ (Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg) which are both a Land and a local authority. There are approximately 15,000 local authorities. Germany is the largest economy and most populous nation in Europe with a population of 83,251,851 (July 2002). Constitutional structure The constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Basic Law, governs the structure of the state and of the public administration in accordance with the following principles:
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federal state: The Länder are members of the Federation retaining sovereign power of their own. self-government for local authorities: The local authorities are guaranteed a high degree of administrative autonomy in local matters. separation of powers: The legislative, executive (government and administration) and the judiciary are each allocated to separate institutions.

The division of state powers between the Federation and the Lander follows the fundamental rule that the exercise of state powers and the performance of state functions is a matter for the Länder insofar as the Basic Law does not prescribe or permit otherwise. Accordingly, the main force of the legislative lies with the Federation, and the focus of the administration with the Länder. The implementation of Federal and European legislation is a matter for the Lander. The Länder in turn, influence the legislation and administration of the Federation through the Federal Council (Bundesrat).

The three main levels can be distinguished as a basic layout in the structure of the administration as set out in Table 1 below. Table 1. Structure of German administration

In principle, each of these administrative levels has its defined group of functions. Neither the Federation nor the Länder have a fully developed general administrative apparatus of authorities reaching down to local level except the city-states. Although the Federation and the Länder are autonomous under the constitutional law they do work together in performing tasks. Thus, the Bundesrat, which is comprised of Länder representatives, can have a direct input into the legislation which the Länder will have to administer. Given that each Land has its own constitution this has led to a variety of structures and approaches to public administration being developed across Germany. However, certain uniformity has developed due to:
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the legal order which is largely uniform throughout the Federation, the public service which is largely arranged in a standard structure throughout the Federation, and the economic and financial system which is uniform throughout the federation.

The vast majority of administrative tasks are carried out by the ‘direct state administration’ (i.e. the Federal or Land authorities) but also in part by legally independent administrations, the so-called ‘indirect’ public administration. The legally and organizationally independent institutions of the ‘indirect’ administration are subject only to limited state supervision, or are not supervised at all as is the case with the Bundesbank. In total, the direct state administration, the administration of local authorities and the indirect public administration employ a staff of almost 5.1 million (1997). These are spread across the various sectors as shown in Table 2. Table 2. Public sector employees by administration level Number of employees Administrative level Federal Land Local authorities Indirect public administration Total 500,000 2,400,000 1,700,000 450,000 5,050,000

Source: The Public Service in Germany The proportion of public service employees against the total number of approximately 36 million in employment is 14.4% but it should be noted that this includes the central administration as well as the indirect or ‘privatised’ elements of public services which will be explained later. The Federal administration The Federal administration (500,000 employees) is said to be considerably smaller than most other European countries given Germany’s size in relation to those countries. The Federal administration carries out two distinct roles. One in relation to Government and the formulation of policy and the second in relation to the implementation of functions for which the Federation has responsibility. These two are termed, respectively, the highest Federal Authorities and the subordinate Federal authorities. Within the highest Federal authorities the Federal Government had a total of 22,000 staff in 1997. Other constitutional bodies, such as the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, have their own administrative apparatus. The Federation is competent for administration only to the extent that the Basic Law expressly permits. The role that it does undertake is in relation to matters, which are closely linked to the ability of the state as a whole to act. These include the following:

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foreign service federal financial administration federal armed forces and the defence administration federal waterways and shipping federal border police authorities federal criminal police office intelligence services.

The Federal Railways, postal and telecommunications services and air traffic control, which previously were part of the Federal administrative apparatus, have all been privatized, with the exception of regulatory and supervisory functions. A total of 923,000 people were employed in these services in 1993, before privatisation. They still employ senior civil servants with life tenure but these are not counted in the statistical information on the overall level of public service employment. The Federal Ministries conduct the business of the department autonomously and with direct ministerial responsibility. The ministries have no supervisory powers over Land authorities. The Länder administration In addition to the local authorities the Länder is the actual administration level in Germany with some 2.4 million Land public servants. The 16 Länder can be divided into two basic types:
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territorial länder (all states except city-states) city-states (Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg).

There is also a fundamental distinction for the Land administration between political activities, which are exercised by the Land Government, and the exercise of administrative tasks, with the focus being on the latter. How the Land is actually structured administratively is a matter for each of the individual states. In spite of this autonomy a high degree of commonality has developed. Most Länder have a three-tier structure of authorities with the highest Land authorities (Land Ministries) at the top, the Government Commissioners or Regional Governments as an intermediate instance and the lower administrative authorities, some of which are also attached to the local administration (County District Commissions and/or local authority offices) as state interfaces. The city-states incorporate the state and local administration in one entity. The Land Governments (or Senates) have to exercise Land and local authority tasks at the same time. In Bremen the state and the local municipality is comprised of the same individuals and the mayor of the municipality is also the Land Minister of Finance. In addition to the general administrative agencies the Land administration also has special Land authorities (higher Land authorities, higher and lower special authorities). The special authorities have been established by virtue of tasks being removed from the Ministries and the general administrative agencies.

Some of the key functions carried out by the various authorities within a Land are set out in Table 3. Table 3. Land functions Administrative level Higher Land authorities Statistics Office Criminal Police Office Protection of the Constitution Office Remuneration and Pensions Office Higher special authorities Regional Finance Office Regional Education Office Forestry Directorates Lower special agencies Tax Offices Forestry Mining Factory and Trade Supervision Schools Health Road Construction Local Offices for waterways, shipping, land survey, agriculture The large administrative areas, in terms of staffing, in all German Länder are education, police and financial administration. The breakdown of the staffing levels is shown in Table 4. Table 4. Staff of the Länder (1997) Function Staff % Functions

School and pre-school institutions Higher education institutions Fiscal and financial administration Judicature Police Other Total Local authority administration

823,000 255,000 161,000 192,000 280,000 691,000 2,402,000

34.3 10.6 6.7 8.0 11.7 28.7 100

The local authority territorial units – local authorities/towns and rural districts (local authority associations) – are parts of the Länder in whose exclusive competence it lies to regulate the structure of local administration. There are 439 rural districts and non-county municipalities and 14,308 local authorities in German employing some 1.7 million. The breakdown across the various sectors is set out in Table 5. Table 5. Local authorities staff (1997) Sector General Admin Public security, law and order Schools Science, research and culture Social services Health, sport and leisure Construction and housing, transport Public institution, promotion of economic development Hospitals 141,000 77,000 269,000 91,000 143,000 126,000 335,000 8.4 4.6 16.0 5.3 8.5 7.5 19.9 Number of staff 248,000 111,000 % 14.7 6.6

Other Total

144,000 1,683,000

8.5 100

Local authorities are subject to the supervision and – where they carry out state tasks – to the instruction of the Länder. Local authorities deal with local matters, with this selfgovernment being protected by the constitution. Self-government for local authorities is a major element of the political order in Germany. When dealing with local matters within the constitutional definition they are on an equal footing with the Federation and the Länder. The laws of the individual Länder make provision for a variety of models for structuring local government. In addition to carrying out their own tasks and tasks assigned by the Länder local authorities are also responsible for local public transport, refuse disposal and the utilities, many of which are operated as private companies under private law. The indirect public administration Institutions with special tasks constituted under public law which are not incorporated into the direct state or local authority administration are part of the indirect public administration. They are, however, part of the public service because they are bodies under private law and provide their services in accordance with Federal statutes. These are largely the institutions of social security:
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agencies responsible for the statutory pension scheme (77,000 staff) labour administration (92,400 staff) agencies responsible for statutory health insurance (139,000 staff) agencies responsible for statutory accident insurance (31,000 staff) miners’ federal insurance fund (14,000 staff).

Additionally, the Deutsche Bundesbank and other legally independent institution are part of the indirect public administration. This indirect public administration employs 450,000 staff. Non-public institutions The number of staff employed by the public agencies (Länder and local authorities) does not represent the total number of staff providing services to citizen. This is particularly the case in social and health services. Non-public institutions include non-profit agencies, church and some commercial service providers. For example, approximately 1.15 million staff were working in hospitals in 1996, 1.08 million of whom were in general hospitals. Public hospitals employed only 657,000 of these, the others working in hospitals operated by non-profit organizations or commercial enterprises. Recent trends

Prior to reunification Germany had one of the most comprehensive and generous systems of health, old age, disability and unemployment insurance in the world. A large part of the population benefited from the welfare system, which included child support, public housing and veterans’ aid. The welfare state accounts for about one-third of the national budget. Basic universal health care and old age and disability pensions are financed equally by employer and employee contributions. Better-paid employees usually supplement their benefits by buying additional private insurance. Employers pay for accident insurance. Long-term nursing care for the elderly is financed by payroll taxes. Since reunification there has been considerable pressure on the economy. This has been exacerbated with the decline in some key industries such as shipbuilding. The impact of this in one city-state has been significant. Unemployment in Bremen is 12% and in Bremerhaven it is 15%. The state has set up a number of economic development agencies to address the problem. Another strong player is the Chamber of Commerce, which all businesses are required to be members of.

Key issues
Improving services A large number of public services are provided under what is termed private law. This basically means that the service has been subjected to a form of privatisation but this can range from state ownership and control to full privatisation as it is know in the West. There is an increasing tendency towards ‘privatisation. Considerable progress has been made on the development of e-government. Via its online service up to 30 different transactions can be conducted with 40 more in the pipeline. The service includes full integration of the latest electronic signature, encryption and payment technology and provides electronic one-stop secure government services to citizens and business. Customer Service Centres are currently being developed. These are along the lines of one-stop shops. A difficulty with this is the desire of each of the seven ministries to retain ‘control’ of the service it provides. A possible solution is to let each ministry run one of the seven offices which are planned under the project. The hospitals in Bremen are marketing their services to oversees ‘customers’ and have developed extensive facilities, such as a hotel, to cater for this market as well as its own local ‘private’ client base. Enhancing democracy One of the key trends in recent years has been the development of citizen participation. Apart from territorial reforms, some Länder carried out far-reaching reforms of the provisions of the nature of local government. These were aimed not only at promoting local self-government and increasing administrative capability of the local levels, but also at strengthening the influence of citizens and giving them more scope for participation.

This has been achieved by introducing the direct election of the mayor of the chief executive official in almost all Länder. Additionally, the instruments of the referendum and provisions for the electorate to request a referendum have been introduced. The Federal government considers the reform of public administration as a central political task. There is a discussion going on about the future of federalism in the unified Germany. Questions have arisen about reducing the number of Lander, improving administrative action by simplifying law and administration, critically evaluating tasks and contractingout some of them. As a result of the new socio-economic and cultural contest, the political importance of local government has grown: decentralization, the ‘re-discovery’ of local self-government and the call for a ‘grass roots revival of politics’ are being discussed. Involving communities Recognising the need to involve the citizen more in the decision-making process the Bremen Citizen Foundation, a state-sponsored organisation designed to capture the citizens, was established. Nation-wide there are some 60-70 foundations. Focus is not so much on consultation with the citizen but rather providing a platform for the citizen to decide which services they could provide in their own communities. Citizen groups already have responsibility for running the largest park in Bremen as well as the local museum. Another community-led initiative is the ‘Living in the Neighborhood’ project by which local communities receive a budget of 150,000 Euro which they can use to enhance their area. This enhancement can take the form of painting houses, planting flowers or other schemes designed to make the area more attractive. Better governance Elected municipal and district councillors serve on a voluntary basis. They do not enjoy immunity and indemnity and they are not civil servants; their special legal status presents the following main characteristics:
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they have a free mandate resulting from their election they are required to accept their office and to exercise it for the prescribed period they cannot be employees of the relevant authority they are prohibited from being involved in cases where there is a conflict of interest they receive accident insurance in accordance with regulations for civil servants.

Any member of an authority can at the same time be a member of the state or federal parliaments. As regards full-time mayors/district councillors, the law may prevent them from holding a seat in the state or federal parliaments at the same time. In contrast to federal and state elections the public authorities do not provide any funds or economic support for parties or candidates in local elections.

http://www.rpani.gov.uk/index/rpa-reviewresearch-decisions/research-old/studyvisits/germany.htm http://www.rpani.gov.uk/index/rpa-reviewresearch-decisions/research-old/studyvisits/germany.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_Germany http://www.bmz.de/en/ministry/structure/organigramm_20091216.pdf http://www.bmu.de/english/the_ministry/tasks_organisation_financing/organisational_ch art/doc/35037.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districts_of_Germany http://www.mmuncii.ro/pub/imagemanager/images/file/Integrare/Germania.pdf http://www.cnp.ro/user/repository/30bc5599788e7b5fffdf.pdf http://x.gov.ro/presa/integrare/afis-doc.php?idpresa=408

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