Marketisation of Public Services in Germany

The introduction of competitive mechanisms and of markets or market-type instruments is a common topic in recent public sector modernisation everywhere. This paper explores the role, the trends and the effects of introducing market-oriented incentives into the discourse about reforming state and administration in Germany. It will be shown that the issue of marketisation up to now did only play a very limited role in the German reform debate. The paper describes the general function of marketisation in actual reform programs in different policy sectors in Germany, and it will explain different variants of competition being discussed and introduced in reform projects. Furthermore, it will analyse recent trends of marketisation to be found in Germany. Two cases will demonstrate typical „goodpractice”. The paper will in addition discuss some experiences and possible effects of increasing marketisation in Germany.