How to Make the German State More Effective
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The reform initiative, under the patronage of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was initiated by Thomas de Maizière and Peer Steinbrück, two former Federal Ministers, Andreas Voßkuhle, who was President of the Federal Constitutional Court from 2010 to 2020, and Julia Jäkel, a media manager. For the work itself, the initiators obtained the support of 54 experts, among them mayors, head teachers, entrepreneurs and academics. Generally speaking, for the authors it is a matter of “renewing the state as a whole”. Reducing red tape, for example, can only succeed, they say, by interlinking various aspects, such as better legislative processes, regulations that allow more exceptions, greater trust in citizens and companies – and a digital state.
Recommendations for education and social affairs
For the areas of education and social affairs, a ten-strong working group headed by Peer Steinbrück formulated seven recommendations. This is where Aladin El-Mafaalani, Professor of Sociology of Migration and Education at TU Dortmund University, contributed his expertise. “Anyone wanting to maintain the welfare state at a high level will have to improve its effectiveness and efficiency,” say the initiators. “Five federal ministries are responsible for around 170 types of benefit, which are managed by almost 30 departments using different terminology and are partly implemented differently in 16 federal states with 400 local authorities.” That is why the working group recommends simplifying matters by bundling responsibility for all social security benefits within the Federal Government and providing a centralized digital platform for all standard benefits.
To improve conditions in the area of education, the initiative recommends a clear allocation of responsibilities at national, regional and local level. A further recommendation is the establishment of a “National Education Council” with representatives from the federal and state governments, academia, as well as from school administration and practice. The aim would be to pull together political requirements, the implementation framework of the administrative bodies, scientific findings, and practical experience from schools and to develop recommendations on this basis. Moreover, schools should be given more autonomy, for example in developing learning content or implementing educational standards.
“We are not talking about educational reforms, but about how we can create structural conditions that make education policy, administration and schools more effective,” says Professor Aladin El-Mafaalani, summing up. In numerous meetings, the experts laid bare important interfaces where government action becomes too slow or even dysfunctional. “In our Interim Report, we have formulated challenges in all political fields of action. The Final Report will be ready in a few months. And one piece of good news is that the proposals are already being discussed in the coalition negotiations,” says El-Mafaalani.
About Professor Aladin El-Mafaalani
Professor Aladin El-Mafaalani has conducted research on education, migration and racism for many years. He has been Professor of Sociology of Migration and Education at TU Dortmund University since 2024. He is a member of Collaborative Research Center 1604 “Production of Migration”, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and hosted by Osnabrück University, and has received several awards for his research. His last four books, which all landed on bestseller lists and high up in critics’ rankings, made him famous throughout Germany. He has been commended for his public work with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Award of the German Sociological Association.