Promoting excellence and the issue of federalism
Dieser Artikel in Deutsch
In Germany, research and education are funded partly by the Federal Government and partly by the Länder. For example, whereas higher education institutions are financed mainly by the Länder, the latter are nevertheless not autonomous regarding their education policies. Rather, the Federal Government also has a say. In the past, this has again and again resulted in conflicts that ultimately had to be decided on by the Federal Constitutional Court. At the core of this issue is the Federal Republic's federal system itself.
Among the latest disputes between the Federal Government and the Länder are the introduction of tuition fees and doing away with the "Habilitation", the qualification academics need in Germany for a post as a higher education lecturer. While the Federal Government campaigned for uniform regulations here, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the Länder. Now, each of the Federal Länder is free to opt for tuition fees or dropping the requirement that its lecturers hold a "Habilitation".
The federal system grants the 16 Federal Länder a high level of autonomy. For example, they have independent political institutions with an executive, a judicative and a legislative. At super-ordinate level, the Länder form the Federal Republic, which is represented by the Federal Government. The Chief Ministers of the Federal Länder have the possibility to influence legislation in a body of their own, the "Bundesrat", Germany's Upper House. The advantages the federal system offers include so-called vertical separation of powers, which allows for an integration of regional aspects into national state policy.
The traditional mission assigned to federalism is to maintain internal diversity. One massive disadvantage the federal system bears is the continuous election campaign it results in. Given that the Germans go to the ballot box every four years, this means that elections are always just around the corner in at least one of the 16 Federal Länder, which has its influence on the day-today political affairs at Federal level. All attempts to offset the weaknesses of the federal system with reforms failed up to this summer because the Federal Government and the Länder were unable to agree on a reorganisation of responsibilities. But now, an initial and crucial agreement has been reached. Towards the end of June 2005, following long debates, the Federal and Länder Governments jointly adopted an excellence programme for research to the tune of 1.9 billion euros in all. This initiative stipulates three priorities: promoting "Graduiertenschulen" (colleges for post-graduates), setting up excellence clusters involving higher education institutions and non-university research, and lump sums to fund programmes in those cases in which third-party funding does not fully cover the costs of a project.
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