Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/300690 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
ZÖSS Discussion Paper No. 106
Publisher: 
Universität Hamburg, Zentrum für Ökonomische und Soziologische Studien (ZÖSS), Hamburg
Abstract: 
The recent judgment of the German Federal Constitutional Court has clarified that the debt brake enshrined in the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz) is intended to do exactly what the legislature intended when it was adopted in 2009: to tie the hands of political actors and block the 'easy way out through debt.' This not only intensifies calls for the abolition or reform of the debt brake, but also raises the question being examined here of how such a restrictive fiscal policy rule could become a constitutional norm in the face of its scientific and political controversy, especially when its 'natural opponents'-left-leaning political actors- consistently held constitutional veto positions. Based on the Agenda Theory of Political Economy, it is demonstrated that the 'Third Wayism' of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) as an adaptation strategy to a neoliberal discourse environment was the necessary precondition for a fiscal decision of 'historical significance.'
Subjects: 
Fiscal rules
Debt brake
Sound Finance
Functional Finance
Political Economy
JEL: 
H30
H60
H62
P10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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