West Germany

The Policy of the Middle Way

Bibliographic Data

ID6296237
AuthorsManfred G Schmidt (0000-0002-7100-0468, corresponding author)
Year1987
Volume7
Issue2
Pages135-177
Publication date1987-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Public Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0143-814X • E-ISSN: 1469-7815
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0143814x00005213
OpenAlexW2121225632
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited28

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

Capitalism · Democracy · Development economics · Economics · Intervention (counseling · Market economy · Optimal distinctiveness theory · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social democracy · Social policy · State (computer science · Welfare · Welfare state · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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