IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eurjhp/v4y2004i3p303-321.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Changing Role Of The State In German Housing And Social Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Volker Busch-Geertsema

Abstract

This paper discusses recent changes in the role of the German state in relation to welfare and housing and, to a lesser extent, recent state initiatives in tackling homelessness. The analysis leads to the conclusion that some of more radical changes apparent in other European countries are less relevant in the German context because the role of the central state (after the war) was never as strong as in some other countries, and because the German state (including the local state) has traditionally been less important as a direct provider of services and housing. While we can confirm a roll back of the state in the area of housing, recent changes in regard to welfare provision for unemployed and poor people are illustrative of‘regulatory restructuring’and of a‘roll out’of state intervention (Peck and Tickell 2002). At the same time as earnings-related elements of social security systems are being reduced and means-tested benefit systems are gaining in importance, a number of new techniques, sanctions and obligatory measures to promote activation and workfare have been introduced, thereby modernizing, intensifying and individualizing the influence of public administration on unemployed and poor citizens. The reform of the basic-income schemes following on the Hartz Commission recommendations will also lead to significant shifts of financial and administrative responsibilities between central, regional and local levels of the state. The responsibility for bearing the housing costs of long-term unemployed people will no longer be shared by all three state levels but become the sole responsibility of local authorities. However, with constantly shrinking powers to influence supply and allocation of housing, local authorities are not in a good position for taking over this responsibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Volker Busch-Geertsema, 2004. "The Changing Role Of The State In German Housing And Social Policy," European Journal of Housing Policy, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 303-321.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurjhp:v:4:y:2004:i:3:p:303-321
    DOI: 10.1080/1461671042000307279
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/1461671042000307279
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1461671042000307279?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Oschmiansky, Frank & Kull, Silke & Schmid, Günther, 2001. "Faule Arbeitslose? Politische Konjunkturen einer Debatte," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Labor Market Policy and Employment FS I 01-206, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wölfle, Tobias & Schöller, Oliver, 2003. "Die kommunale Hilfe zur Arbeit im Kontext kapitalistischer Arbeitsdisziplinierung," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Innovation and Organization SP III 2003-107, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    2. Schettkat, Ronald, 2002. "Institutions in the economic fitness landscape: What impact do welfare state institutions have on economic performance?," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Labor Market Policy and Employment FS I 02-210, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    3. Bach, Hans-Uwe & Koch, Susanne & Magvas, Emil & Pusse, Leo & Rothe, Thomas & Spitznagel, Eugen, 2003. "Der Arbeitsmarkt in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in den Jahren 2003 und 2004 (The labour market in the Federal Republic of Germany in 2003 and 2004)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(1), pages 7-45.
    4. repec:iab:iabfme:200806(en is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Schmid, Achim & Buhr, Petra, 2002. "Aktive Klienten - Aktive Politik? (Wie) Läßt sich dauerhafte Unabhängigkeit von Sozialhilfe erreichen? Ein Literaturbericht," Working papers of the ZeS 08/2002, University of Bremen, Centre for Social Policy Research (ZeS).
    6. Bach, Hans-Uwe & Koch, Susanne & Magvas, Emil & Pusse, Leo & Rothe, Thomas & Spitznagel, Eugen, 2003. "Der Arbeitsmarkt in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in den Jahren 2003 und 2004 (The labour market in the Federal Republic of Germany in 2003 and 2004)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(1), pages 7-45.
    7. Arntz, Melanie & Lo, Simon M. S. & Wilke, Ralf A., 2008. "Bounds analysis of competing risks : a nonparametric evaluation of the effect of unemployment benefits on migration in Germany (Revised version of the FDZ Methodenbericht No. 04/2007)," FDZ Methodenreport 200806_en, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    8. repec:iab:iabfme:200704(en is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Anthonj, Pierre & Emrich, Eike & Pierdzioch, Christian, 2013. "Gewalt und Gewaltbekämpfung im deutschen Fußball: Empirische Bestandsaufnahme und sozioökonomische Modellbildung [Hooliganism and interventions against football hooliganism: Empirical analysis and ," Working Papers of the European Institute for Socioeconomics 1, European Institute for Socioeconomics (EIS), Saarbrücken.
    10. Kleinhenz, Gerhard, 2001. "Zur Einführung: Arbeitslosigkeit - nach wie vor ein Schlüsselthema der Sozialökonomik," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 34(4), pages 371-375.
    11. Bach, Hans-Uwe & Koch, Susanne & Magvas, Emil & Pusse, Leo & Rothe, Thomas & Spitznagel, Eugen, 2003. "Der Arbeitsmarkt in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in den Jahren 2003 und 2004 (The labour market in the Federal Republic of Germany in 2003 and 2004)," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 36(1), pages 7-45.
    12. Kleinhenz, Gerhard, 2001. "Zur Einführung: Arbeitslosigkeit - nach wie vor ein Schlüsselthema der Sozialökonomik," Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 34(4), pages 371-375.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:eurjhp:v:4:y:2004:i:3:p:303-321. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REUJ20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.