Producing flexi-corporatism

Abstract

The positioning of German state-society within the globalisation and restructuring debates is, in itself, highly contested between competing voices and claims. In a neo-liberal reading, evident across international economic institutions, academic analysis and media commentary, the ‘low cost – low regulation’ Anglo-Saxon programme is positioned as ‘outcompeting’ the ‘high cost – high regulation’ German social market (see OECD, 2001; Giersch et al., 1992; The Economist, 8 July 2000). Some more critical social science commentaries have, perhaps inadvertently, reinforced the image of neo-liberal triumph by observing the dominance of a UK–US nexus of hyperliberal restructuring (Gill, 1995a; Van der Pijl, 1984), or by arguing that globalisation demands reforms from social democratic state-societies (Giddens, 1998). Gerhard Schröder’s apparent embracing of the individualism and ‘workfare’ (Jessop, 1994) strategy of Blair’s ‘Third Way’ in his ‘Neue Mitte’ concept may be read as indicative of an acceptance of the necessary restructuring imperatives of a global economy. Yet, when we explore the debate taking place within and outside German state-society it becomes clear that the representation of Germany as a rigid and inflexible political economy in need of radical restructuring is by no means uncontested. An effective counter to neo-liberal claims is presented by those who emphasise the ‘beneficial constraints’ of close relationships between state, industry, finance and labour in ‘Rhineland Capitalism’ (see Albert, 1993; Streeck, 1992a; Soskice, 1996; Coates, 2000; Hutton, 1995). In this representation of Germany in a global era, the ‘inflexibilities’ and ‘inefficiencies’ of German capitalism are read as the resources of high innovation and high quality-based competitiveness. Put simply, perceptions of Germany in relation to globalisation, both inside and outside the state-society, are contradictory