Governance in Contemporary Germany: The Semisovereign State Revisited

Much has changed in Germany over the past twenty years. In 1987 Peter Katzenstein produced a seminal analysis of the 'semisovereign' politics of West Germany, providing a compelling account of policy-making in Europe's largest economy. However, unification in 1990 changed Germany's institutional configuration radically, and created economic challenges on a huge scale. By building on the original study, an eminent team of scholars asks whether semisovereignty still exists in contemporary Germany and whether, as Katzenstein originally contended, it remains an asset. (The conclusion is provided by Peter Katzenstein.)

Simon Green is a Lecturer at the Institute for German Studies, University of Birmingham. He has worked extensively on German politics, in particular immigration and citizenship policy, and his book The Politics of Exclusion: Institutions and Immigration Policy in Contemporary Germany was published in 2004.

William E. Paterson is Professor of German Politics and Director of the Institute for German Studies, University of Birmingham. He has written widely on German and European politics, and in 1999 was awarded an OBE for scholarship in German studies.