ABSTRACT
Like so many other politicians on obtaining power, the CDU/CSU/FDP Coalition found their medicine for Germany’s ills easier to prescribe than to take. They managed to make DM 5,000,000 million of savings but, as soon as they began to cut down on social services and subsidies, they ran into objections from their own followers who felt their pockets touched or feared the loss of votes. The DM 29,000 million provided by the Federal Government for social purposes in 1983 was DM 2,000 million more than the figure in the last year of the Schmidt Government. The DM 100,000 million spent on subsidies in 1981 rose to DM 121,000 million in 1985. West German society was showing itself resistant to turning. Attitudes motivated by personal advantage were reinforced institutionally. The Basic Law laid down (see p. 124) that all Bills affecting the Länder required the agreement of the Bundesrat. But since the party composition in that House is often different from that in the Bundestag, and changes with almost every Land election, Federal Governments have often to make concessions so as to safeguard their legislation from being blocked by a hostile majority in the upper house.
