Agenda 2010
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The Agenda 2010 is a series of reforms planned and executed by the
German government The Federal Cabinet or Federal Government (german: link=no, Bundeskabinett or ') is the chief executive body of the Federal Republic of Germany. It consists of the Federal Chancellor and cabinet ministers. The fundamentals of the cabinet's or ...
in the early 2000s, a
Social-Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote s ...
/ Greens coalition at that time, which aimed to reform the
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
welfare system and labour relations. The declared objective of Agenda 2010 was to promote economic growth and thus reduce unemployment.


The Agenda

On 14 March 2003, Chancellor
Gerhard Schröder Gerhard Fritz Kurt "Gerd" Schröder (; born 7 April 1944) is a German lobbyist and former politician, who served as the chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. From 1999 to 2004, he was also the Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...
gave a speech before the German ''
Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...
'' outlining the proposed plans for reform. He pointed out three main areas which the agenda would focus on: the economy, the system of social security, and Germany's position on the world market. German finance minister
Hans Eichel Hans Eichel (born 24 December 1941) is a German politician ( SPD) and the co-founder of the G20, or "Group of Twenty", an international forum for the governments and central bank governors of twenty developed and developing nations to discuss ...
had the responsibility of implementing socially unpopular measures including tax cuts (such as a 25% reduction in the basic rate of income tax), cuts in the cost absorption for medical treatment and drastic cuts in pension benefits, and cuts in
unemployment benefits Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a comp ...
. The measures were ostensibly proposed in accordance with the market liberalisation approach adopted by the EU's
Lisbon Strategy The Lisbon Strategy, also known as the Lisbon Agenda or Lisbon Process, was an action and development plan devised in 2000, for the economy of the European Union between 2000 and 2010. A pivotal role in its formulation was played by the Portuguese ...
. The name ''Agenda 2010'' itself is a reference to the
Lisbon Strategy The Lisbon Strategy, also known as the Lisbon Agenda or Lisbon Process, was an action and development plan devised in 2000, for the economy of the European Union between 2000 and 2010. A pivotal role in its formulation was played by the Portuguese ...
's 2010 deadline. The plan was strongly promoted by the
Bertelsmann Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector and ...
media group."Ohne Bertelsmann geht nichts mehr"
("Without Bertelsmann nothing works"),
Heise Heise may refer to: People with the surname * Bob Heise (born 1947), American Major League Baseball player * David R. Heise (born 1937), American sociologist * Geoff Heise, American actor * Georg Arnold Heise (1778–1851), an influential Germa ...
online, 9 November 2004
A series of changes in the labour market known as the Hartz plan started in 2003 and the last step,
Hartz IV The Hartz concept, also known as Hartz reforms or the Hartz plan, is a set of recommendations submitted by a committee on reforms to the German labour market in 2002. Named after the head of the committee, Peter Hartz, these recommendations went ...
, came into effect on 1 January 2005. These changes affected unemployment benefits and job centers in Germany, and the very nature of the German system of social security.


Reaction

Politicians, industrial leaders, trade unions, media and population consider the Agenda 2010, especially the
Hartz IV The Hartz concept, also known as Hartz reforms or the Hartz plan, is a set of recommendations submitted by a committee on reforms to the German labour market in 2002. Named after the head of the committee, Peter Hartz, these recommendations went ...
law, as the largest cut into the German system of social security since
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. While industrial leaders and both the
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
and
economically liberal Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalis ...
parliamentary parties such as the CDU, the CSU, and the FDP strongly supported Agenda 2010 as it implemented their long-time demands, there was a strong upheaval in Schröder's own
SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...
. After Schröder threatened to resign (with no obvious successor as Chancellor) if the changes were blocked within his party, since they were so vital to his government's policy, he received an inner-party 80% vote of confidence as well as a 90% approval from his coalition partner, the Greens. The leaders of the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in Germany took the "highly unusual step" of publicly expressing their support for the government's proposals. "The old methods no longer work", the chairman of the Evangelical church, Manfred Kock, said. The leader of the country's Catholics, Cardinal Karl Lehman, called Schröder's proposals "absolutely necessary"."Schroeder faces day of reckoning"
by John Hooper, ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', 30 May 2003
Schröder had won the 2002 federal election with, among other things, the promise not to cut into the social security system. In reaction to the Agenda's policies and the measures taken, a significant number of members of Schröder's
SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...
left the party, but the more prominent left-wing politicians stayed on. Although the changes eventually went through, Gerhard Schröder, after adverse opinion polls, resigned as party chairman (though not as
Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
) in February 2004, to give way to
Franz Müntefering Franz Müntefering (; born 16 January 1940) is a German politician. He was Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 2004 to 2005 and again from 18 October 2008 to 13 November 2009. He served as the minister of Labour and Social Affairs, ...
. This development left the
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(with only 2 out of the 603 members of the federal parliament) as the only outspoken opponent to the Agenda 2010 policies although their course was somewhat inconsistent. In the ''Länder'' of
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; nds, Mäkelborg-Vörpommern), also known by its anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks 14th in po ...
and
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, where there are SPD-PDS coalitions (and later SPD- Die Linke coalitions), PDS/Die Linke ministers actively implemented ''Agenda 2010'' laws. The
German Trade Union Federation The German Trade Union Confederation (german: Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund; DGB) is an umbrella organisation (sometimes known as a national trade union center) for eight German trade unions, in total representing more than 6 million people ...
(DGB), the most influential group outside parliament and historically interwoven with the SPD, massively stepped up their discourse against Agenda 2010, especially prior to the
Hartz IV The Hartz concept, also known as Hartz reforms or the Hartz plan, is a set of recommendations submitted by a committee on reforms to the German labour market in 2002. Named after the head of the committee, Peter Hartz, these recommendations went ...
law in July 2004, but the rumble subsided quickly after a summit meeting with Schröder in August 2004. The trade unions suffered from a lot of attrition in that process as their members defected in droves either because the unions' attitude was perceived as too lenient or as too strongly opposed. There were no strikes against Agenda 2010 as the
German constitution The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 an ...
prohibits politically motivated strikes, but some demonstrations at least were organized and supported by the unions. In December 2003, the '' Bundesrat'', dominated by the opposition CDU party, blocked some of the reforms on political grounds until several compromises were reached, many of which put a particularly painful twist—for those affected, for example the unemployed or the ill—on the measures taken. Dissatisfaction with Agenda 2010, and in particular with
Hartz IV The Hartz concept, also known as Hartz reforms or the Hartz plan, is a set of recommendations submitted by a committee on reforms to the German labour market in 2002. Named after the head of the committee, Peter Hartz, these recommendations went ...
, lead to thousands of people protesting in the streets of
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
and other big cities particularly in eastern, but also western Germany over the summer of 2004 (see Monday demonstrations, 2004). Dissent with the Agenda 2010 had also promoted the foundation of a new political party, the
Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...
(WASG) by long-term SPD members and union activists. The WASG was squarely against the measures taken in the Agenda 2010 process and ran in the 2005
North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
state election, where it gained 2.2% of the votes and no seat, against what it considered "the neoliberal consensus" displayed by the governing centre-left political parties and the more conservative opposition alike. For the
2005 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 18 September 2005 to elect the members of the 16th Bundestag. The snap election was called after the government's defeat in a state election, which caused them to intentionally lose a motion of confide ...
the WASG formed a successful electoral alliance with The Left Party.PDS, which reached 8.7% of the votes. In June 2007 both parties merged to a new party, The Left.


Consequences

The immediate aftermath of the Agenda 2010 reforms was that unemployment rose to over 5.2 million people in February 2005 and Schröder called German companies "lazy" for failing to hire more workers. Beginning in 2005, however, unemployment figures began falling and, in May 2007, unemployment was at 3.8 million people, a 5½ year low. The apparent success of Agenda 2010 in reducing unemployment in Germany has been cited in the debate over extending long-term unemployment insurance benefits in the United States. A debate about the socioeconomic results of the Agenda 2010 reforms was stirred by the release of a study conducted by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in late 2006. The study classified 4 percent of people living in West Germany as well as 20 percent of people living in East Germany as living in " precarious" socio-economic conditions. Although the topic of social conditions in Germany was much debated as a result of this study, with many people (including those in Schröder's own party) laying blame on Schröder and his
Hartz IV The Hartz concept, also known as Hartz reforms or the Hartz plan, is a set of recommendations submitted by a committee on reforms to the German labour market in 2002. Named after the head of the committee, Peter Hartz, these recommendations went ...
reforms for the growing
economic inequality There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of we ...
in Germany, no policy changes have been enacted as a direct result of the study. By 2008, the
wage share In economics, the wage share or labor share is the part of national income, or the income of a particular economic sector, allocated to wages (labor). It is related to the capital or profit share, the part of income going to capital, which is also ...
of national income had reached a 50-year low of 64.5%. Another sign that economic inequality has risen in Germany can be seen in the fact that the number of Germans living below the poverty line has increased from 11% in 2001, to 12.3% in 2004, and about 14% in 2007. According to 2007 government statistics, one out of every six children was poor, a post-1960-record, with more than a third of all children poor in big cities like Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. Voters seemed to respond to the Agenda 2010 and Hartz IV reforms negatively. In the 2004 elections to the EU parliament, the SPD reached an all-time postwar national election low of only 21% of the votes. The SPD lost by a wide margin in the 2005 regional election in its North Rhine-Westphalia "heartland", where the regional SPD government was replaced by a CDU- FDP coalition, giving the winners a working majority in the '' Bundesrat'', the federal legislature's upper house. The Social Democrats losses were widely attributed to voters' discontent with the Agenda 2010 reforms. Subsequently, Chancellor Schröder triggered a loss in a confidence vote, which, in turn, necessitated an early general election. In the autumn of 2005, one year ahead of schedule,
general elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
were held and the Social Democrats were defeated. By 2011, unemployment had fallen from its 10% average of the mid-decade to around 7%, its lowest since the early 1990s. Some scientists see the wage depression in Germany fostered by the Agenda 2010 as one of the causes of the European debt crisis.


See also

*
Demographics of Germany The demography of Germany is monitored by the ''Statistisches Bundesamt'' (Federal Statistical Office of Germany). According to the most recent data, Germany's population is 84,079,811 (30 June 2022) making it the most populous country in th ...
*
Politics of Germany Germany is a democratic and federal parliamentary republic, where federal legislative power is vested in the (the parliament of Germany) and the (the representative body of the , Germany's regional states). The federal system has, since 1 ...


References


Further reading

* {{cite journal , last1 = Dustmann , first1 = Christian , last2 = Fitzenberger , first2 = Bernd , last3 = Schönberg , first3 = Uta , last4 = Spitz-Oener , first4 = Alexandra , year = 2014 , title = From Sick Man of Europe to Economic Superstar: Germany's Resurgent Economy , journal =
Journal of Economic Perspectives The ''Journal of Economic Perspectives'' (JEP) is an economic journal published by the American Economic Association. The journal was established in 1987. It is very broad in its scope. According to its editors its purpose is: #to synthesize and ...
, volume = 28 , issue = 1 , pages = 167–88 , doi = 10.1257/jep.28.1.167, url = http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1413698/1/Schoenberg_JEP_October2013.pdf


External links


A Quick Guide To ‘Agenda 2010’
Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...
's English report on the Agenda 2010, 17 Oct 2003 Welfare in Germany 2010 in Germany Political history of Germany Economic policy in Europe Labor in Germany Reform in Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier