Public Attitudes towards German Federalism: A Point of Departure for a Reform of German (Fiscal) Federalism? Differences between Public Opinion and the Political Debate

The debate on how to revise Germany's federal structure has relied on oft-cited ideas that largely lack an empirical basis. The current discourse is marked by an additional shortcoming: individuals' preferences about how to structure the country's federal system have been more or less unexamined. This contradicts the fundamental principles derived from the economic theory of federalism, which stresses that those principles should serve as a basis for all such reform considerations. Our key findings show that public attitudes towards German federalism are very ambivalent. For this, a fundamental re-examination of the conventional arguments that moves away from a notion of 'competitive federalism' towards an optimisation and increased democratic acceptance of more collaborative forms of coordination between the different federal levels seems to be necessary. Following this, Germany seems to be prepared for global challenges like demographic change and climate change.