Civil Society in Germany: Its Conceptualization and Organization
Murat KalkanGermany has been an important country in the emergence and development of social policy practices and the discipline of social policy science and as such has a characteristic position as a welfare state. This is reflected in the field of civil society, with Germany having been analyzed in the literature as an example of a corporatist civil society regime, similar to comparative welfare state studies. In this regard, this study aims to determine the current state of civil society’s conceptualization and organization in Germany, and the main focus of this study involves the social policy-welfare state perspective. For this purpose, the study first analyzes the relationship between social policy and civil society on a conceptual level before evaluating the current situation in Germany through the historical context. As a result and in light of the data obtained from research conducted in recent years, the study observes growth to have occurred in Germany’s civil society organization, but this growth has also been accompanied by a structural transformation. In other words, the ‘corporatization’ and tendency toward ‘professionalization’ are observed to have gained weight in German civil society organizations.
Almanya’da Sivil Toplum Anlayışı ve Organizasyonu
Murat KalkanAlmanya, sosyal politika uygulamalarının olduğu kadar, sosyal politika bilim disiplininin de hem ortaya çıkmasında hem de gelişmesinde önemli bir ülkedir. Bu çerçevede de sosyal devlet olarak karakteristik bir konumda yer almaktadır. Bunun bir yansıması ise sivil toplum alanında kendini göstermekte ve literatürde, Almanya’nın, karşılaştırmalı refah devleti çalışmalarına benzer şekilde, korporatist bir sivil toplum rejimi örneği olarak ele alındığı anlaşılmaktadır. İşte bu noktada çalışmanın amacı ise, Almanya’daki sivil toplum anlayışının ve örgütlenmesinin, güncel durumunun tespiti olarak belirlenmiş; dayanak noktası sosyal politika-sosyal devlet dönüşümü perspektifi olmuştur. Bunun için çalışmada öncelikle sosyal politika-sivil toplum ilişkisi kavramsal düzlemde ele alınmış daha sonra da Almanya’daki mevcut durum tarihi süreç üzerinden anlamlandırılarak değerlendirilmiştir. Netice olarak, son yıllarda yapılan araştırmalardan elde edilen veriler ışığında, Almanya’nın sivil toplum örgütlenmesinde büyümenin olduğu ama buna yapısal bir dönüşümün eşlik ettiği görülmüştür. Bir başka deyişle Alman sivil toplum örgütlenmesinde ‘işletmecilik’ mantığının ve ‘profesyonelleşme’ eğiliminin giderek ağırlık kazandığı anlaşılmaktadır.
The research on civil society and civil society organizations has had a long history. However, it also draws attention as a subject that has been increasingly addressed in recent years. In this respect, civil society and their respective organizations constitute an important field of study regarding social policy, because the qualitative and quantitative status of civil society is accepted as an indicator of the development of countries and societies. Although some issues occur that cannot be unanimously defined, civil societal understandings have developed by being shaped around certain cultural values in the lives of societies. In other words, the forms of organization that these understandings bring with them are inevitably formed with various qualities that change from one country to another. In this respect, the Federal Republic of Germany is a remarkable country. Comparative studies have characterized Germany as a model country regarding its welfare state classifications and categorization of civil society regimes. As a matter of fact, the social policy and welfare state approach that forms the basis of the social structure in Germany has also affected civil society organizations socioeconomically and legally and is an important factor in how they are positioned.
In line with this, this study aims to determine the current situation of the understanding and organization of civil society in Germany. The main question here is how Germany is categorized as a country in civil society regimes and where is the situation heading. Therefore, this study examines the understanding and organization of civil society in Germany as one of the most politically and socioeconomically important countries in the world from the perspective of the transformation of social policy-welfare state understandings and makes an assessment of the current situation in the country.
As in the rest of the world in recent years, the quantitative and qualitative development of organized civil society in Germany has received much attention. The political authorities are interested in various studies and practices and have supported the development of civil society through specific regulations. The analysis this study conducts shows that the first types of civil society organizations in German society in the modern sense were encountered in the 19th century. In this respect, a growing interest is seen to have occurred, one that has been intensifying since the 1990s. Germany can be said to have an above-average position in the world ranking in this regard, and its statistics that reveal the understanding of civil society to have developed through gradual diversification over the years is an indication of this. Unfortunately, no exact number can be given regarding the number of civil society organizations there, which are said to have increased especially after the German unification in 1990. However, research conducted in recent years helps to understand the volunteering and institutional infrastructure of civil society. In this context, both volunteerism and the number of civil society organizations (currently more than 656,000) have increased in Germany.
Research on the understanding and organization of civil society in different countries shows that Germany is positioned differently from the Anglo-Saxonworld and from Scandinavian countries, aswell as its classification of social policy and existence as awelfare state. It is seen that the relations between non-governmental organizations and the state in Germany are strong and a corporatist approach is adopted. The fact that Germany is seen as one of the models of a corporatist welfare state in which civil society actors play an important role in the welfare mix actually indicates the presence of a wide space for civil society organizations alongside the state, especially regarding the provision of social services and practices to those concerned. First of all, this is the manifestation of the social policy-social state approach that developed in relation to the construction process of the German national state and is nothing more than a path dependency that has developed for over a hundred years.
In Germany, the reforms in the welfare state and especially the social changes caused by demographic developments in recent years have produced important results by affecting the preferences of those in civil society organizations. The civil society organization has shown a growth trend simultaneously accompanied by a structural transformation. This is because the increase in non-profit limited liability companies and the trend toward the informalization of civil society participation has simultaneously paved the way for the weakening of the corporatist institutional foundations of the German civil society understanding. In other words, organized civil society in Germany has grown, and its main characteristic is transformation. The German civil society regime must therefore also seek a position in the context of the transformation of social policies and the welfare state. In this context, these societies can evolve partly toward a liberal civil society regime. This is because the increasing tendency toward ‘corporatization’ and ‘professionalization’ in civil society organization in Germany in recent years will give more space to the market, as well as in the liberal understanding of the civil society regime.
