Institutions, the CDU and policy change: Explaining German economic policy in the 1980s

When the Christian‐liberal coalition under Helmut Kohl came to power in 1982 it declared that a major turnaround in economic policy was to be brought about. However, although the new government faced rather favourable conditions it failed to launch major policy reversals in the 1980s. What accounts for this result? The thesis of this article is that the most important impediment for comprehensive market‐oriented reforms in the 1980s was the fact that the coalition lacked programmatic cohesion. Particularly the labour wing of the CDU managed to prevent more extensive reforms in most areas.