A More Efficient and Accountable Federalism? An Analysis of the Consequences of Germany's 2006 Constitutional Reform

Abstract

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.