Reformation Germany Research Articles

After Recent Policy Reforms in Germany: Probability and Determinants of Labour Market Integration of Lone Mothers and Mothers with a Partner who Receive Welfare Benefits

In the first decade of the twenty-first century, there have been reforms in German family and social policy, aimed at improving reconciliation of work and family and linking receipt of welfare benefits more strongly on activation and labour market participation. Mothers receiving welfare benefits are subject to both new policies. In this article, it is investigated how these mothers succeed in entering the labour market and what its determinants are. Probabilities to take up employment are estimated from administrative data for lone mothers and mothers living with a partner. Care responsibilities in the household and mothers’ labour market resources influence the process of labour market integration. Lone mothers are more likely to take up work when they don’t have young children in the household than mothers living with a partner. For both groups of mothers, employment is predominantly not full-time.

The Formation of Organ Donation Policy in Germany: Evidence, Politics and Public Opinion

The gap between the demand and supply of organs for transplantation is a worldwide phenomenon that continues to tax policy-makers. We consider recent policy reforms in Germany, drawing on evidence from Spain and Austria for comparison. Our analysis adopts Kingdon's multiple streams model which suggests that windows of opportunity for policy change open when an issue of public concern combines with a plausible solution and favorable political circumstances. Evidence is central to this process, but the type of evidence and the ways it is used, differ from technocratic formulations of evidence based policy-making. Scientific evidence may contribute to the rational appraisal of options, but this and other forms of evidence are also used rhetorically to generate political will and public support for change. We conclude by considering what the formation of organ donation policy in Germany reveals about the processes of policy-making under the competing imperatives of rationalism and democracy.

Tom Scott, The Early Reformation in Germany. Between Secular Impact and Radical Vision. Surrey/Burlington, Ashgate 2013

Tom Scott, The Early Reformation in Germany. Between Secular Impact and Radical Vision. Surrey/Burlington, Ashgate 2013

Miracles and the Protestant Imagination: The Evangelical Wonder Book in Reformation Germany

Miracles and the Protestant Imagination: The Evangelical Wonder Book in Reformation Germany

Policy streams and public service media funding reforms in Germany and Finland

On 1 January 2013, Germany and Finland made the switch from the traditional broadcasting licence fee tied to television-set ownership to a compulsory excise duty collected from all citizens, households and places of business. This article compares the changes in these countries’ public service media funding arrangements on the basis of John Kingdon’s ‘multiple streams’ framework of public policy-making which, to date, has been rather neglected in studies of media policy-making processes. Drawing on the analysis of policy documents and interviews with policymakers and other stakeholders involved in the respective processes, we investigate how the actual reforms materialized, which other possibilities were neglected and why this has been the case.

Intergenerational Transmission of Education and Mediating Channels: Evidence from a Compulsory Schooling Reform in Germany

AbstractIn this paper, I estimate the causal effect that an additional year of schooling for parents has on their children's education, by exploiting a compulsory schooling reform that was implemented in all West German states between 1946 and 1969. Although previous research indicates that the reform had no effect on earnings, I find that an additional year of schooling for women strongly affects the education of their sons. There is no effect for the other parent–child gender pairs. I investigate numerous channels that might mediate the positive effect of the education of mothers. Most importantly, I find that individuals with more schooling value their children's educational success as more important.

Allyson F. Creasman. Censorship and Civic Order in Reformation Germany, 1517–1648: “Printed Poison and Evil Talk.”

Allyson F. Creasman's book studies the flow of ideas during the German Reformation from the formative years of urban reform to the confessionalized atmosphere of the Thirty Years' War. At one level, it “aims to reassess the Reformation's spread by examining how censorship impacted public understanding of reform” (p. 3). This requires close study of the publishing industry and its control in the urban environment, which Creasman does using archival materials and regional literature from the imperial cities of Augsburg and Nuremberg. But the book is more than just a case study in the history of print. Creasman, mindful of both the nature of communication in the early modern period as well as the recent concerns of Reformation historiography, defines her terms very broadly. She does not just study the printing and censorship of texts but undertakes a nuanced exploration of how these texts interacted with other forms of communication, from neighborhood rumor and communal readings to public debates and ritual action, and thereby “created a filter through which the reform message was understood” (p. 78). Rather than focus on how censorship worked (or failed to work) to place restrictions on the publication of texts or limit the free circulation of ideas (though the book does examine these practical issues), Creasman adopts a notion of censorship that makes it a dynamic element in the communication process. Censorship was not just the top-down imposition of order; it was part of a dialogue—“as much a product of public opinion as a force acting upon it” (p. 227)—that not only prescribed and enforced notions of civic order but was itself shaped by the energy of communal opinion.

No crisis but a paradigm shift? German youth policy between continuity and change

In Germany, the impact of the economic and financial crisis in general and on youth policy in particular is not as severe as in other European countries. Nevertheless, child and youth welfare currently is subject to restructuring. We argue that the crisis is used to legitimise an already ongoing policy change towards an activation model of welfare, although it is not clear yet to what extent current changes imply a path change. A particular aspect of recent reforms in Germany is the introduction of all-day schooling which has considerable consequences for child and youth welfare. The paper describes the structure of youth policy and particularly of child and youth welfare in Germany. Furthermore, recent changes are highlighted with regard to both statistical development and dominant discourses with regard to education, prevention and economisation in child and youth welfare. A special focus is laid on the field of youth work.

No need to reinvent the wheel: family policy transfers in Germany and Austria

Family policies have recently been raised high on the political agendas for action in many welfare states and have constituted a major reform area. This is especially the case in Germany and in Austria, where the literature has identified surprisingly far-reaching reforms, particularly in the fields of parental leave and childcare services. This article addresses the observation that there has not only been an intensive exchange between these two countries in their family policy reform processes, additionally, there has been a growing interest in ‘learning from abroad’ in general, with the Nordic countries often serving as examples. Partly, this is connected to an increased activity of the European Union in the field, particularly through soft law methods like the open method of coordination (OMC). This article asks to what extent family policy reforms in Germany and Austria were influenced by vertical and horizontal policy transfers. Presenting findings from comparative case studies of reforms in parental leave and childcare (2000–2010), the article shows which reforms were influenced by policy transfers (and which were not), which objects were transferred and to what extent. It argues that family policy reforms in Germany and in Austria cannot be fully understood without taking cross-national policy transfers into account.

Returns to Citizenship? Evidence from Germany's Recent Immigration Reforms

Immigrants in many countries have lower employment rates and lower earnings than natives. In this paper, we ask whether a more liberal access to citizenship can improve the economic integration of immigrants. Our analysis relies on two major immigration reforms in Germany, a country with a relatively weak record of immigrant assimilation. For identification, we exploit discontinuities in the reforms' eligibility rules. Between 1991 and 1999, adolescents could obtain citizenship after eight years of residency in Germany, while adults faced a 15-year residency requirement. Since 2000, all immigrants face an 8-year residency requirement. OLS estimates show a positive correlation between naturalization and labor market performance. Based on the eligibility rules, we find few returns of citizenship for men, but substantial returns for women. Returns are also larger for more recent immigrants, but essentially zero for traditional guest workers. Overall, liberalization of citizenship provides some benefits in the labor market but is unlikely to result in full economic and social integration of immigrants in the host country.

Returns to Citizenship? Evidence from Germany's Recent Immigration Reforms

Immigrants in many countries have lower employment rates and lower earnings than natives. In this paper, we ask whether a more liberal access to citizenship can improve the economic integration of immigrants. Our analysis relies on two major immigration reforms in Germany, a country with a relatively weak record of immigrant assimilation. For identification, we exploit discontinuities in the reforms' eligibility rules. Between 1991 and 1999, adolescents could obtain citizenship after eight years of residency in Germany, while adults faced a 15-year residency requirement. Since 2000, all immigrants face an 8-year residency requirement. OLS estimates show a positive correlation between naturalization and labor market performance. Based on the eligibility rules, we find few returns of citizenship for men, but substantial returns for women. Returns are also larger for more recent immigrants, but essentially zero for traditional guest workers. Overall, liberalization of citizenship provides some benefits in the labor market but is unlikely to result in full economic and social integration of immigrants in the host country.

Celestial Wonders in Reformation Germany by Ken Kurihara (review)

Celestial Wonders in Reformation Germany by Ken Kurihara (review)

Reversing Early Retirement in Germany<br>A Longitudinal Analysis of the Effects of Recent Pension Reforms on the Timing of the Transition to Retirement and on Pension Incomes<br>

This article investigates the effects and risks of recent pension reforms in Germany. While German pension policy systematically supported early retirement for many years in order to relieve the regulated labour market in times of economic stagnation, there has been a substantial change of the pension policy paradigm in the more recent past. Latest reforms expect older people to prolong working life. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and applying micro-level longitudinal research methods, this contribution shows that the recent reversal of early retirement in Germany has been at the price of growing social inequalities in old age.

Electoral Thresholds and Political Outcomes: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from a Reform in Germany

We exploit a natural experiment to study the political consequences of explicit electoral thresholds. The natural experiment in question is an electoral reform in the German federal state of Hesse. In 2001, the state parliament abolished the five percent electoral threshold for local elections. The abolishment of the threshold had, on average, a stronger effect on municipalities with larger councils since implicit electoral thresholds are inversely correlated with council size. Using a dataset that includes all 426 Hessian municipalities over the period 1989 to 2011 and exploiting discontinuities in a state law that exogenously maps population to council size, we implement a difference-in-discontinuity design for identification. Our results show that the seat and vote shares of small parties increased in municipalities affected more strongly by the reform. These political effects are primarily due to the reform’s psychological rather than the mechanical consequences. We also find that the reform had no effect on voter turnout. These findings suggest that abolishing an existing threshold improves the electoral prospects of smaller parties. It does, however, not increase voter participation.

Macroeconomic Evaluation of Labor Market Reform in Germany

In 2005 the German government implemented the so-called Hartz IV reform, which amounted to a complete overhaul of the German unemployment insurance system and resulted in a significant reduction in unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed. In this paper, we use an incomplete-market model with search unemployment to evaluate the macro-economic and welfare effects of the Hartz IV reform. We calibrate the model economy to German data before the reform and then use the calibrated model economy to simulate the effects of Hartz IV. In our baseline calibration, we find that the reform has reduced the long-run (noncyclical)unemployment rate in Germany by 1.4 percentage points. We also find that the welfare of employed households increases, but the welfare of unemployed households decreases even with moderate degree of risk aversion.

The Liberalisation of the German Social Model: Public–Private Pension Reform in Germany since 2001

AbstractSome commentators view reforms to the German political economy since the 1990s as constituting a broad liberalisation of a previously coordinated market economy (e.g., Streeck, 2009). Others argue that by maintaining protection for core workers the reforms represent a dualisation rather than liberalisation (e.g., Palier and Thelen, 2010). This debate has paid little attention to public–private pension reform since 2001. This paper argues that pensions have been a crucial component of the German social model since 1957 and demonstrates why comprehensive analysis of its development must consider them. After summarising how public and occupational pensions have supported core German workers since 1957, the paper calculates core workers’ projected net pensions and those of less privileged employees before and after recent reforms. On this basis, it concludes that pension reforms have created a system more characteristic of a liberal than a dualised political economy. Since the reform, the projected pensions of today's young workers are closer to the poverty line, and the gap between the projected benefits of core and peripheral workers has narrowed. Increasingly, as young core workers age, they will thus have less incentive to invest in employer specific skills, a development that threatens the model as a whole.

The Early Reformation in Germany: Between Secular Impact and Radical Vision

The Early Reformation in Germany: Between Secular Impact and Radical Vision

Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland nebst ergänzenden Aktenstücken. Dritte Abteilung, 1572–1585. 10. Band: Nuntiaturen des Orazio Malaspina und des Ottavio Santacroce. Interim des Cesare dell’Arena (1578–1581) ed. by Alexander Koller (review)

Reviewed by: Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland nebst ergänzenden Aktenstücken. Dritte Abteilung, 1572–1585. 10. Band: Nuntiaturen des Orazio Malaspina und des Ottavio Santacroce. Interim des Cesare dell’Arena (1578–1581) ed. by Alexander Koller Robert Bireley S.J. Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland nebst ergänzenden Aktenstücken. Dritte Abteilung, 1572–1585. 10. Band: Nuntiaturen des Orazio Malaspina und des Ottavio Santacroce. Interim des Cesare dell’Arena (1578–1581). Alexander Koller. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. 2012. Pp. lxxxviii, 671. $196.00 paperback. ISBN 978-3-11-028710-3.) This latest volume of the series Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland is most welcome. Edited by Alexander Koller, the acting director of the German Historical Institute in Rome, it maintains the high standards of this series so important for our understanding of the Catholic Reform in Germany and beyond. The volume contains the correspondence of Cardinal Tolomeo Gallio, who was responsible for the foreign affairs of the Holy See under Pope Gregory XIII (1572–85), with two nuncios at the court of Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, Orazio Malaspina, who served from August 29, 1578, until July 4, 1581 (not to be confused with his distant relative, Germanico Malaspina, who served as the first nuncio in Graz starting in 1580 and later in Prague from 1584 to 85), and Ottavio Santacroce, who succeeded Malaspina and died in office on September 3, 1581, as well as of Cesare dell’Arena, secretary at the nuntiature, who carried on the correspondence until the arrival of the new nuncio, Giovanni Bonomi, in mid-December. Nearly all the documents are found in the Vatican Archives. Altogether there are 147 reports from Malaspina, twenty-four from Santacroce, twelve from Dell’Arena, and three from Campizio Cornuagli (another secretary), as well as 160 instructions from Gallio. The nuncios sent their dispatches regularly each week to Rome. The texts of all the documents are in Italian and published in full apart from the formal greetings [End Page 792] and conclusions. Each document is broken down into numbered paragraphs and is preceded by a summary in German that points to the content of each paragraph. This system facilitates a scan of the volume when one is looking for a particular topic. Koller provides a clear, extensive introduction to the documents including sharp sketches of the principal figures involved and an outline of papal policies. No serious differences clouded the relationship between the pope and the emperor during the period of Malapina’s nuntiature. He replaced Bartolomeo Portia, who had died after only several months as nuncio at the imperial court in Prague. The Vatican found itself without a well-prepared replacement and may have turned to the inexperienced Malaspina because of his origins near the territory of Borgo Val di Taro not far from Parma. Conflicting feudal claims of the emperor and the pope was a topic frequently addressed in the documents. Little is known of the life of Malaspina before his appointment except that he was a priest of the Diocese of Luni-Sarzana and an apostolic protonotary. His inexperience showed, according to Koller, in hesitation to act without clear direction from Rome and in his inadequate reports, for example, on the projected electoral convention of Nuremberg that never did take place. Emperor Rudolf was ill for much of the second half of Malaspina’s nuntiature, and the nuncio commented regularly on the state of Rudolf’s health. He also regularly informed Gallio about the efforts to dissuade the pious Empress Maria, Rudolf’s mother, from returning to Spain. The pope saw in her a powerful force to bolster Rudolf’s commitment to the Catholic cause in the Empire, and Rudolf himself seems to have wanted her to remain in Prague. But after many delays, she departed for Madrid in late August 1581. The pope also sought to restore the University of Prague as a Catholic institution. These and many other topics come up for treatment in the correspondence. Shortly after his return to Rome, Malaspina was dispatched as an extraordinary nuncio to Paris with the task of preventing war between France and Spain. There he died on January 27, 1582. In the notes and bibliography of this rich volume one can find...

:Censorship and Civic Order in Reformation Germany, 1517–1648. St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History

:<i>Censorship and Civic Order in Reformation Germany, 1517–1648. St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History</i>

Censorship and Civic Order in Reformation Germany, 1517-1648: 'Printed Poison and Evil Talk'

Censorship and Civic Order in Reformation Germany, 1517-1648: 'Printed Poison and Evil Talk'