THE CONCEPT OF DUAL FEDERALISM
In both the United States and Germany, one speaks of “dual federalism.” In the United States this means that the federal government and the states have separate political and administrative responsibilities and their own sources of revenues.
In Germany, by contrast, dual federalism means that the federal executive and legislative branches of government are responsible for most legislation, and that the Länder generally administer the laws (in large part through their local governments) as their own responsibility. In both federal systems “dual federalism” has been undermined or weakened by “cooperative federalism, ” which is generally associated with the New Deal and the Great Society in the United States and the Finance Reform of 1969 in Germany, which led to a greater degree of intermingling between federal and Land functions. In the meantime the concept of “intergovernmental relations” has more or less replaced the concept of “cooperative federalism” in the United States, while Politikverflechtung (political/policy interconnection and coordination) is the more commonly used term in Germany today.8The German concept of dual federalism is not new; indeed, Gerhard Lehmbruch traces it back to the abortive 1849 federal constitution and to Bismarck and his North German Federation of 1867 and Kaiserreich of 1871.9 According to Article 30 of the constitution, or Basic Law (Grundgesetz), of the Federal Republic, “state [Americans would say “governmental”] powers and the implementation of state [governmental] tasks are the responsibility of the Länder.” But, as with the Tenth Amendment to the American Constitution,10 Article 30 is somewhat misleading. Indeed, Fritz Scharpf has suggested that the provisions of Article 30 are a “living lie [Lebenslüge] of federalism, ”11 since other provisions of the Basic Law give to the federation most legislative powers and to the Länder most administrative responsibilities.