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West Germany: The Policy of the Middle Way

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Manfred G. Schmidt
Manfred G. Schmidt
Affiliation:
Political Science, University of Heidelber
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Abstract

This article focuses attention on the distinctive characteristics of economic and social policy in West Germany during the last four decades. It will be argued, that the distinctiveness of state intervention in West Germany resides in a combination of policies of conversative-reformist, liberal and social democratic complexion. The policy of the middle way which results from this combination differs from the extreme poles that are marked by the model of Social-Democratic welfare capitalism on the one hand and market capitalism on the other, but it also comprises elements of both types of political economies. The emergence and the maintenance of the policy of the middle way can largely be attributed to distinctive characteristics of the policy process, and of processes of learning from historical catastrophes.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , April 1987 , pp. 135 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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