The Erosion of Industrial Citizenship in Germany

T.H. Marshall's approach of the evolution of social and industrial citizenship was widely accepted as an evolutionary success story for the postwar era (Marshall 1992). Germany was a good case for Marshall’s ideas, since Democratic employee participation has improved during the second half of the 20th century continuously. But in recent years the institutional pillars of German Capitalism have eroded significantly (Streeck 2009). Inequality rose simultaneausly, while social security and upward social mobility decreased (Doering-Manteuffel/Raphael 2009). We argue that given the erosion of the German model of capitalism we can observe a severe decline in industrial citizenship for the first time in postwar history. It is in particular the industrial rights that have been curtailed. Formally the differentiation of rights and their institutions remain relatively robust, but the increase in precarious employment is leading to a new stratification as our empirical research (quantitative data and case studies) on temporary work and contract work in their corporate contexts indicates. Here, temporary and contract workers are confronted with serious deficits in civil rights compared to the permanent workforce – endangering co-determination from the inside. One of the paradoxes in our findings is that industrial citizenship in the nation state is partly in decline through the broadening of basis economic citizenship right in Europe. Migrant workers in contract work are substituting traditional forms of employment relations with high levels of social protection and integration (Brinkmann/Nachtwey 2013, 2014).