Citizen turned customer: the structural change of the education system and democratic culture in Germany.

Abstract

This paper analyses the causes and effects of the striking change in terminology and strategy in Germany’s education policy debates from a sociohistorical perspective. It interprets the current popularity of economic strategies and language in the context of the long-term structural change in the German education system, the demise of the system of entitlement and the expansion of commercial education provision in traditional areas of state responsibility over the last decades. The paper makes the point that, in the long run, this may result in shrinking of free state education provision to a core of schools offering the obligatory minimum, with the education certificates relevant for professional careers being increasingly attained in private an commercial institutions. Such a retreat of the public sector from this core area of its traditional responsibilities and the ensuing departure of the social elites from state education would have a lasting impact on the democratic culture in Germany.