In 1969, the sociologist Niklas Luhmann published Legitimation durch Verfahren, legitimacy through procedure. Luhmann argued that people do not accept decisions by the state because of ideas about what is right. They accept them because they believe in the procedure that produced them, while the outcome is still open, and because they took part in that procedure.
All Those Affected
In Faktizität und Geltung (Between Facts and Norms, 1992), the philosopher Jürgen Habermas defined which rules are valid: Gültig sind genau die Handlungsnormen, denen alle möglicherweise Betroffenen als Teilnehmer an rationalen Diskursen zustimmen könnten. (Valid are exactly those norms of action to which all those possibly affected could agree as participants in rational discourse.)
The Works Council Law of 1920
On 18 January 1920, the Reichstag passed the Betriebsrätegesetz, the Works Council Act. Every establishment with twenty or more employees had to let its workers elect a works council. The law was contested. On 13 January, during the debate, about 100,000 people demonstrated in front of the Reichstag. The police opened fire. Forty-two people died and 105 were injured. The Nazi regime abolished the law in 1934. Today’s law on changes in operations still draws its line at twenty. It applies in companies with more than twenty employees entitled to vote.
When the Whole Theater Decided
In the 1970s, two of Germany’s most innovative theaters tried full co-determination. At the Schaubühne in Berlin, from 1970, the general assembly of all staff elected three of the five members of the theater’s board and could veto all its decisions. At the Schauspiel Frankfurt, from 1972, the director Peter Palitzsch wanted a Mitbestimmungstheater, a co-determination theater, inspired by the ideas of 1968. The general assembly of the entire staff was its most important body. Palitzsch left in 1980. Under his successors, after a scandal, the city’s head of culture suspended the model.
Plan First, Then Build
In April 2013, the federal ministry for transport and building set up a commission of 36 senior experts on the construction of major projects. Its final report of June 2015 named three examples of projects that had gone far over cost and schedule: the new Berlin airport, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Stuttgart 21 railway station. One of its ten recommendations, under the heading Erst planen, dann bauen, was this: Der Bauherr sollte mit dem Bau erst nach Erstellung eines zusammenfassenden Dokuments beginnen, das die lückenlose Ausführungsplanung für das gesamte Projekt sowie detaillierte Angaben zu Kosten, Risiken und zum Zeitplan enthält. (The client should start building only after a summary document has been drawn up. It must contain the complete construction planning for the whole project and detailed information on costs, risks and schedule.) In December 2015, the federal cabinet adopted a ten-point action plan. Point two was Erst planen, dann bauen, plan first, then build.
The Elbphilharmonie
Hamburg’s concert hall on the Elbe was first planned to be finished in 2010. The city’s share of the cost was first calculated at 77 million euros. In the end, construction cost about 866 million euros, and the first concerts took place on 11 January 2017. A committee of inquiry of the Hamburg parliament examined what had gone wrong. It found that when the work was put out to tender in 2006 and the contract was signed in 2007, the planning noch nicht weit genug fortgeschritten gewesen, had not yet advanced far enough.
The Easter Rest That Never Happened
In March 2021, during the pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the state premiers agreed overnight on an Osterruhe, extra days of rest over Easter. On 24 March 2021, Merkel withdrew it. She explained that the idea hatte ihre guten Gründe, war aber in der Kürze der Zeit nicht gut genug umsetzbar, had good reasons, but could not be carried out well enough in the short time available. The open questions concerned pay for the lost working days and the situation of shops and businesses. They could not be answered in time. She added: Dennoch war die Idee der sogenannten Osterruhe ein Fehler. (Nevertheless, the idea of the so-called Easter rest was a mistake.)
The Round Table
On 7 December 1989, a month after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Zentraler Runder Tisch, the Central Round Table, met for the first time in East Berlin. Church representatives without a vote called the meeting and chaired it. The seats were divided equally, 19 to 19, between the old forces of the GDR and the new opposition groups. One of its first and most important subjects was the dissolution of the Stasi. It met sixteen times, for the last time on 12 March 1990, just before the first free election. Round tables on the same model were set up across the country, down to the level of towns. The table was named after the Polish round table. Its seating was rectangular.
The Coal Commission
In June 2018, the federal government set up a commission on growth, structural change and employment. Germans called it the Kohlekommission, the coal commission. Its job was to work out how Germany would end coal power. Its 28 voting members included unions, industry associations, environmental groups, scientists and people from the mining regions, among them the mayor of Spremberg in Lusatia. On 26 January 2019, it presented its report. The last coal plant was to close in 2038, and the regions were to receive 40 billion euros in aid over twenty years. Twenty-seven of the 28 members voted for it. The one vote against came from a representative of Lusatian residents affected by open-cast mining, because the report did not protect the village of Proschim from being cleared. Parliament turned the plan into law in 2020.
The Parents Said No
In 2008, Hamburg’s governing coalition planned a major school reform. All children were to learn together for six years instead of four before being sorted into different types of secondary school. After changes negotiated with the opposition, the city parliament passed the law on 3 March 2010, this time unanimously. A parents’ initiative called Wir wollen lernen, we want to learn, forced a referendum. On 18 July 2010, with a turnout of 39 percent, 54.5 percent of voters rejected the six-year primary school, and the core of the reform failed.