The active development of the theory and practice of regional management in Germany dates back to the post-war period, when regional disproportions became particularly noticeable. On the other hand, the reason for the increased attention of the leadership to regional problems was the increase in the stable state of the national economy, which allowed the Government to allocate a relatively large amount of allocations for their solution.
Features of the regional policy of the Federal Republic of Germany are:
a large degree of uneven development of the regions, which acquired a large scale after the unification of Germany; stability and balance of Germany’s regional policy; creating conditions for the equal development of regions is a requirement of the German Constitution (unlike most other EU countries).
As a result of the significant differentiation in the development of the regions of western and eastern Germany and the very active and consistent desire of the German government to solve this acute problem, the country in question is a universally recognized leader among the EU members in terms of total spending on direct and indirect regionally oriented assistance. As you know, today the share of Germany and Italy, which has similar problems, accounts for more than 2/3 of the total EU expenditures on the implementation of regional assistance. As you know, today the share of Germany and Italy, which has similar problems, accounts for more than 2/3 of the total EU expenditures on the implementation of regional assistance. The practice of providing oriented aid through the federal system in Germany is considered the most successful in the EU. This is expressed in the fact that, firstly, the dynamics of real costs to stimulate the regions does not have pronounced opportunistic “ups” and “downs” as in other European countries, and secondly, these costs themselves express the general trend of stable growth.
As in the UK, Germany periodically undertakes reforms of national regional policy. Thus, in 1985, the national audit service of the Federal Republic of Germany came to the conclusion that the system used in the country to monitor the effectiveness of the aid allocated has significant shortcomings and needs to be radically revised. As a result, the country has undergone serious changes in the system of stimulating regional development – a gradual transition has been made from automatic incentives to discretionary (i.e. selective, applied at the discretion of national and local regulatory bodies) instruments for regulating regional development. The selectivity of regional policies has been manifested in the growing weight of regionally oriented aid aimed at supporting new, as well as small and medium-sized firms. In particular, in Germany, this type of assistance was provided to enterprises with a staff of up to 200 people. (in some cases – up to 500 people) and an annual turnover of up to 50 million DM.
The Federal Republic of Germany today is a federal state (republic), consisting of 16 states, each of which is an independent state. Their population is: North Rhine-Westphalia (17.3 million people); Bayern – 11.4; Baden-Württemberg – 9.8; Lower Saxony – 7.4; Hesse – 5.8; Saxony – 4.8; Rhineland-Palatinate – 3.8; Berlin – 3.4; Saxony-Anhalt – 2.9; Brandenburg, Thuringia and Schleswit-Holstein – 2.6 each; Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – 1.9; Hamburg –1.7; Saarland – 1.1; Bremen – 0.7. The allocation of land is based on a historical principle. In their competence are issues affecting the daily life of citizens – culture, communal services, public order. Each land has its own constitution.
The management system consists of two branches, closely interconnected, forming a common system of local government and self-government:
the local government system, which covers the administrative bodies appointed by the centre and subordinate only to it – government districts and administrative districts; a system of local self-government encompassing representative bodies elected by the population of communities and districts.
The government district is the highest level of administrative-territorial division in the Federal Republic of Germany. In total, there are 33 government districts in the Federal Republic of Germany, each of which represents a complex territorial association of communities. The Länder governments have a representative in the leadership of the government district.