№ 1 - 2000
Vasilyev V.I.
Some Aspects of the Current Discussion on German Federalism

The author analyzes the main problems that have emerged at the present stage of the development of federalism in Germany. He considers both the intricacies of the federative mechanism itself: the extent of autonomy of federal lands, transformation of the Bundesrat’s role, — and problems proceeding from concrete socio-economic and political development at the present stage: uneven development of individual fed-eral lands (especially in the east of the country), distinctions between the country’s largest political parties’ approaches to the principles of federalism. The CDU, when in power, was inclined to increase the administrative functions of the federal authority. But this tendency was restricted by the position of the Christian democrats’ main ally, the CSU, one of the pillars of German federalism. At present, there exist two principal points of view on the prospects of federalism in the country: the idea of competitive federalism is upheld by the Christian democrats and liberals; the social democrats and the “greens” advocate cooperative federalism. But this distinction does not compro-mise the national consensus on the importance and value of federative principles in modern Germany.