From the guaranteeing state to the »Gewährleistungsstaat« – and (perhaps) back again

Social policy on the state's responsibility for common goods

Abstract

The »Gewährleistungsstaat« (engl.: regulatory state) was invented in the 1990s in contrast to the powerful narrative of the »lean state«. In a »story of rising«, they offered the prospect of a strong state oriented toward the common good – a new and fashionable state "in tune with the times«. As a »Gewährleistungsstaat«, the state responds to society's need for a state, which has grown over time, by activating society for its common good and retreating into the guarantor state to do so. The narrative of the »Gewährleistungsstaat« became hegemonic in Germany and continues to shape the dominant image of the state today. The article presents this narrative and highlights, among other things, the etatist undertones in the narrative of the modest, learning and cooperating state. Only with its secret etatism can the »Gewährleistungsstaat« be put into effect in the sociopolitical field, namely in the course of modernizing the welfare state by tightening state control and steering of the providers of socially desired services. The article explains why, despite (or rather because of) its conventional content, the »Gewährleistungsstaat« could be told as a »story of rising« and thus narratively »finish off« the neoliberal critique of the state.