Redrawing the map? The question of territorial reform in the federal republic

Abstract

The question of fundamental territorial reform in the Federal Republic, directed towards the establishment of a Lander community better able to assert its interests vis‐à‐vis the federal government and the European Community, has long been discussed but never acted on. Recently the need for reform has been heightened both by the weaknesses of the new Lander created in the former GDR and by the challenges posed by the growing incursions of the EC into areas of domestic policy responsibility. Prospects for reform remain however limited by the resistance of those Lander whose existence would be threatened by territorial reorganisation. In view of this, a pragmatic short‐term answer to the challenges of unification and European integration may lie in an increased horizontal coordination between contiguous Lander faced by common problems.