German federalism requires agreement between the federal government and the states across broad areas of legislation, through a second chamber composed of state governments. The constitution obliges the levels to reach terms. A majority is frequently not enough.
government
The waiver
American processes come with a documented path around them — a variance in a building code, an exception request in procurement, a waiver in a grant programme. The exception is not a failure of the process. It is part of the process, with its own form.
Bureaucracy
In American usage the word is an accusation, and it is applied to private companies as readily as to government. Elsewhere the word can describe a form of organisation. In American English it describes a failure of one.
Social partnership
Sozialpartnerschaft. Employers and unions in Germany are called social partners, by both sides and by the state. The word describes a relationship that is genuinely adversarial as a joint undertaking, and the naming shapes what an acceptable outcome looks like.
Administration as a profession
German public administration has its own universities, its own career tracks and its own body of administrative law governing how decisions must be reached. Procedure is the subject matter, not the overhead.
Red tape
The American term for procedure that has stopped serving anything, and it is never neutral. Politicians campaign on cutting it. Agencies publish counts of rules eliminated. The metaphor is of something that binds without holding anything together.
Consensus as the objective
German political and business speech treats consensus as the objective rather than as an unusually good outcome. Konsensfähig — capable of consensus — is a compliment applied to proposals and to people. A position that cannot attract agreement is described as defective rather than as merely unpopular.
The Works Constitution Act
Das Betriebsverfassungsgesetz gives the works council co-determination rights over working hours, overtime, holiday scheduling, monitoring of employees, and the rules of conduct in the workplace. On these matters the employer cannot act alone. Not consultation — agreement.
Co-determination
Mitbestimmung. German company law places employee representatives on the supervisory boards of large firms, half the seats in those above two thousand employees. The structure assumes that a decision reached without one side represented lacks something — and builds the representation in before any conflict arises.
The settlement judge
Der Güterichter. German courts appoint judges whose function is to conduct settlement negotiations rather than to rule — a separate judge from the one who would decide the case, with no power over the outcome. The court provides a route to agreement that cannot become a route to judgment.