Datensatz

Zusammenfassung

The German federal reform adopted in 2006 aims to enhance efficiency and
accountability of governance by disentangling the intertwined levels of government
and by reducing the veto rights of the Bundesrat, Germany’s strong second
chamber. In this article, we assess the degree to which reform in these areas has
been fulfilled. In particular we ask if the reform will i) accelerate the legislative
decision-making process, ii) expand the freedom of political action of the federal
government and iii) disentangle the competencies between the intertwined levels
of German government. Our analysis shows a remarkable gap between the ambitious
goals of reformers and the reality of the actual reform outcome.