Reforming the Machinery of Government: The Case of the German Federal Bureaucracy

This chapter revolves around the role of the German federal government in public sector reform. Before reviewing the reform history of the past ten years and shed some light on the changes in the machinery of government at the federal level (for more general overviews see Derlien 1996; Klages/ Löffler 1996; Schröter/ Wollmann 1997 as well as Benz/ Goetz 1996 and Wollmann/ Schröter 2000; König/ Füchtner 2000; Jann 2004), it appears appropriate to pave the way for further analysis by putting the federal government’s track record in perspective: What measure of reform activity can we reasonably expect? What are the levers of change at the federal government’s disposal and what are the major constraints for proactive and comprehensive reform policies?