Verfallende Infrastruktur bei Rekordeinnahmen: Eine Institutionssoziologie bundesdeutscher Haushaltspolitik

In the 2010s, German government pursued a structurally conservative budgetary policy, resulting in weak public investments despite favorable fiscal conditions. How can this be explained? Recent literature on the German budgetary regime has primarily cited the tradition of ordoliberalism and the conservative German welfare model to explain this typical pattern of expenditure policy in the Federal Republic of Germany. Instead, this contribution offers an institutional-sociological explanation that focuses on the fundamental relationship patterns between government, parliament, and the state-bureaucracy underlying fiscal policy. According to the principle of ministerial autonomy (Ressortprinzip), the relatively independent ministers, along with their top civil servants, are the key protagonists in German federal budget negotiations, where party politics and departmental politics overlap. Within the traditional role structure of the German cabinet system, the finance minister holds a particular position of power, suggesting his self-presentation as a “minister of thrift.” Conversely, representatives of coalition parties and the Bundestag, as well as the administrative heads of other ministries, possess specific profiles of power resources. These constellations generate incrementalist interactions within the executive, resulting, depending on the circumstances, in the expansion of marginal expenditure scope or in the reduction of voluntary spending. These negotiations run counter to encompassing investment planning. Despite its formal budgetary sovereignty, the role of the Bundestag is restricted to communicating support or disapproval of single ministers. As a result, the institutional power and role profile of the ministries, manifested in budget negotiations where the Federal Ministry of Finance traditionally acts as a powerful veto player, ensure the continuity of structurally conservative fiscal policy across changes in power.