ABSTRACT
Collaborative federalism is most markedly developed in Germany. The constitution divides the powers of the Länder (provinces) and the federal government in such a way that none of them can act autonomously. While the federal government is responsible for the bulk of legislation (including tax laws), it is the competency of the Länder to implement federal legislation. In order to pass most of its legislation (and all of the important laws), the federal government needs the consent of the second chamber (Bundesrat), composed of the representatives of the Länder governments. These, in turn, are supervised in implementing laws by the federal government. The competencies that have remained with the Länder governments, rnainly in the fields of education, police and culture, are exercised to generate not so much diverse but rather uniform policy outcomes across the federation. To this end, innumerable formal and informal committees have been established to co-ordinate the policies among the Länder, and between the Länder as a whole and the federal government. These horizontal and vertical joint decision systems (Politikverflechtung) have been identified as the main obstacles to flexible and responsive policy-making (Scharpf et al. 1976; Scharpf 1988).
