Public Policies
Public policies are all the authoritative public decisions that the government makes. Their actions create outputs that are categorized under the four following headings: extraction, distribution, regulation and symbolic policies.
Extraction
Extraction refers to the extracting of resources from the general public, most commonly in the form of taxes. In Germany, the government levies both direct taxes and indirect taxes on general public.
Direct taxes are taxes that are directly levied on the people and corporations. The most common form adopted by Germany's government is personal and corporate income taxes, which make up a large portion of their revenues. Their income taxes are progressive: the higher a person's income, the greater their average tax rate. Thus, their policies favor the less affluent more than the rich.
Another significant component of the government's revenue is value-added tax (VAT), which is an indirect tax--the tax-payers aren't predetermined: people who buy the specific products and commodities in the store will be the ones to pay the VAT.
Germany is part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), categorized as a country with heavy social security tax systems. Countries with an emphasis on taxing employers and employees for their social security generally get one-third to one-half of their revenue through such means.
Distribution
Germany, as all other forms of government, don't just take resources from it's people--they give back to society as well, through providing different kinds of goods, services, and opportunities. In fact, Germany and many other developed countries spend more than two-thirds of their budget on education, health and welfare.
Germany established the first modern welfare state in the 1880s, in response to it's rapid industrialization and growth. The welfare state refers to the set of government or private policies concerning old age pensions (aka social security), health, sickness, accident insurance, unemployment benefits, and so on. As such, there are two types of major spending through which the government can give back to society: cash transfers to individuals and families (e.g. food coupons), and direct government spending on service (e.g. health care). Germany's welfare state growth and expenditure is reflected in their widened scope of distributive policies. They offer all kinds of social insurance programs to protect workers, ranging from unemployment and sickness, to old age poverty.
Regulation
Regulation is the exercise of political control over the behavior of individuals and groups in the society. Germany's regulatory policies are heavily influenced by constitutional and public governance structures, and traditions. These are important assets which have helped them secure stability and respect for the law. The regulations Germany puts in place are also responsible for promoting all kinds of social activities. For instance, having the government protect the property rights of citizens and enforce contractual obligations allows efficient economic production and commerce.
One of the regulation policies that Germany enforces is the excise tax on tobacco. Since Germany comparatively has the greatest amount of smokers in Europe, the government imposes sales ("sin") taxes on the buyers, forbids advertisements or sales of tobacco, and enforces campaigns to try and convince citizens of the dangers of using tobacco. While these policies are in place, many observe that these rules are in fact very loosely enforced by Germany officials, and are thus rendered quite ineffective.
Symbolic Policies
Germany has created various symbolic policies in the past to promote national identity, rally up citizens and to further a sense of community. One of the most important symbolic events is the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. On June 12th, 1987, US president Ronald Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to dramatically advance the "cause of freedom and peace" by tearing down the Berlin Wall. Though East Berlin and West Berlin were already united in theory, the symbolic representation of actually removing the barrier between the two sides would fire up the citizens and increase the government's credibility among the people.
Other ways Germany has tried to boost people's national identity, civic pride and trust in the government is through public holidays such as International Worker's Day and German Unity Day. International Worker's Day serves as a holiday to recognize the efforts of the working class and celebrate their contributions to society. Such recognition is a sort of reward for citizens and gives them a greater incentive to contribute.
German Unity Day on the other hand is a commemoration of the day East Germany and West Germany became one. This is an extremely important reminder to the citizens of how far the country's come from being an oppressive communist regime to its current status of economic and social prominence. It's a great way to raise everyone's spirits as well as foster a stronger sense of national identity and community.
Outcomes
Germany is a social democracy follows the outline of laissez-faire in it's support of private property and open markets. However, they believe that a certain degree of government intervention is absolutely necessary to correct economic inequality. For instance, Germany uses a progressive income tax that taxes a greater amount on those with a higher annual salary. This policy allows Germany to redistribute the wealth to the poor and achieve equality through better welfare policies. This is one of the main reasons why Germany has such an extensive welfare state that offers so many different services.
The government's efforts to help the less affluent are shown in their health outcomes in comparison to the other countries: Germany's public health expenditure is about 8.3% of their GDP, higher than any other developed country (including the US, Britain and Japan). The results of this larger portion of expenditure is reflected in the plethora of services provided: Germany has the second most physicians per a thousand citizens, and one of the highest life expectancies, of age 77.
Extraction
Extraction refers to the extracting of resources from the general public, most commonly in the form of taxes. In Germany, the government levies both direct taxes and indirect taxes on general public.
Direct taxes are taxes that are directly levied on the people and corporations. The most common form adopted by Germany's government is personal and corporate income taxes, which make up a large portion of their revenues. Their income taxes are progressive: the higher a person's income, the greater their average tax rate. Thus, their policies favor the less affluent more than the rich.
Another significant component of the government's revenue is value-added tax (VAT), which is an indirect tax--the tax-payers aren't predetermined: people who buy the specific products and commodities in the store will be the ones to pay the VAT.
Germany is part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), categorized as a country with heavy social security tax systems. Countries with an emphasis on taxing employers and employees for their social security generally get one-third to one-half of their revenue through such means.
Distribution
Germany, as all other forms of government, don't just take resources from it's people--they give back to society as well, through providing different kinds of goods, services, and opportunities. In fact, Germany and many other developed countries spend more than two-thirds of their budget on education, health and welfare.
Germany established the first modern welfare state in the 1880s, in response to it's rapid industrialization and growth. The welfare state refers to the set of government or private policies concerning old age pensions (aka social security), health, sickness, accident insurance, unemployment benefits, and so on. As such, there are two types of major spending through which the government can give back to society: cash transfers to individuals and families (e.g. food coupons), and direct government spending on service (e.g. health care). Germany's welfare state growth and expenditure is reflected in their widened scope of distributive policies. They offer all kinds of social insurance programs to protect workers, ranging from unemployment and sickness, to old age poverty.
Regulation
Regulation is the exercise of political control over the behavior of individuals and groups in the society. Germany's regulatory policies are heavily influenced by constitutional and public governance structures, and traditions. These are important assets which have helped them secure stability and respect for the law. The regulations Germany puts in place are also responsible for promoting all kinds of social activities. For instance, having the government protect the property rights of citizens and enforce contractual obligations allows efficient economic production and commerce.
One of the regulation policies that Germany enforces is the excise tax on tobacco. Since Germany comparatively has the greatest amount of smokers in Europe, the government imposes sales ("sin") taxes on the buyers, forbids advertisements or sales of tobacco, and enforces campaigns to try and convince citizens of the dangers of using tobacco. While these policies are in place, many observe that these rules are in fact very loosely enforced by Germany officials, and are thus rendered quite ineffective.
Symbolic Policies
Germany has created various symbolic policies in the past to promote national identity, rally up citizens and to further a sense of community. One of the most important symbolic events is the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. On June 12th, 1987, US president Ronald Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to dramatically advance the "cause of freedom and peace" by tearing down the Berlin Wall. Though East Berlin and West Berlin were already united in theory, the symbolic representation of actually removing the barrier between the two sides would fire up the citizens and increase the government's credibility among the people.
Other ways Germany has tried to boost people's national identity, civic pride and trust in the government is through public holidays such as International Worker's Day and German Unity Day. International Worker's Day serves as a holiday to recognize the efforts of the working class and celebrate their contributions to society. Such recognition is a sort of reward for citizens and gives them a greater incentive to contribute.
German Unity Day on the other hand is a commemoration of the day East Germany and West Germany became one. This is an extremely important reminder to the citizens of how far the country's come from being an oppressive communist regime to its current status of economic and social prominence. It's a great way to raise everyone's spirits as well as foster a stronger sense of national identity and community.
Outcomes
Germany is a social democracy follows the outline of laissez-faire in it's support of private property and open markets. However, they believe that a certain degree of government intervention is absolutely necessary to correct economic inequality. For instance, Germany uses a progressive income tax that taxes a greater amount on those with a higher annual salary. This policy allows Germany to redistribute the wealth to the poor and achieve equality through better welfare policies. This is one of the main reasons why Germany has such an extensive welfare state that offers so many different services.
The government's efforts to help the less affluent are shown in their health outcomes in comparison to the other countries: Germany's public health expenditure is about 8.3% of their GDP, higher than any other developed country (including the US, Britain and Japan). The results of this larger portion of expenditure is reflected in the plethora of services provided: Germany has the second most physicians per a thousand citizens, and one of the highest life expectancies, of age 77.