Postindustrial Germany

This book is about the state of the German model of capitalism today. It is the first book to offer an integrated analysis of the political economy of unified Germany rather than dealing with east and west as separate entities. It challenges the standard view that Germany is lagging behind other capitalist states in the transition to a postindustrial economy, and looks in detail at the expansion of the service sector, the transformation of the industrial sector and the development of the knowledge economy in unified Germany. The book finds that Germany is indeed becoming postindustrial, but that it is not developing in any single direction. Rather, the research outlined in this book suggests that some regions perform well in services or the production of knowledge while others have successfully transformed industrial production. This variation, it is argued, is the consequence of unification as well as older economic traditions which pre-date the industrial revolution.