Taking a Look at Government Coalitions: An Examination of the Traffic Light vs. Black-Red coalitions
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Unsuccessful Success: The Incident's Odd Outcome - "Research Efforts Marked as Unsuccessful" - scientists' wording
According to the Bertelsmann Foundation, there are concerns about the upcoming black-red coalition's success compared to the previous traffic light government, based on an analysis of their respective coalition agreements. A paper by political scientists Robert Vehrkamp and Theres Matthieß suggests that the new coalition might not have learned from the traffic light government's mistakes. The German Press Agency received an advance copy of the paper, which will be published on Monday.
In their assessment, the authors note that the new coalition agreement is less definitive and less ambitious than the traffic light agreement. Additionally, key portions of the agreement are already the subject of debate before the government even takes office. The traffic light government is deemed a "successfully failed" coalition due to its inability to fulfill many of its promises.
Traffic Light Government's Mixed Results
The Bertelsmann Foundation delivers a mixed verdict on the traffic light government. Despite only implementing 52% of their promises, the traffic light coalition managed to surpass the performance of the previous CDU-SPD governments within the same time frame. As such, the traffic light coalition was more than just a disagreement-ridden government.
The traffic light coalition's 2021 contract included 453 promises, which was approximately 50% more than the promises made in the 2018 coalition agreement and 2.5 times more than in the 2013 black-red coalition agreement. The traffic light coalition implemented 236 projects – 45% fully and 7% partially. When the traffic light government disbanded, 98 projects were still in development, while 118 promises had yet to begin implementation.
Traffic Light Fell Short of Its Set Goals
"The traffic light fell short of its own ambitious goals. While the two previous governments implemented nearly 80% of their promises, the traffic light's performance is significantly worse, with only slightly more than half of the promises fulfilled," the Bertelsmann Foundation paper states. "However, it has implemented even more projects (plus 7) than its predecessor government and substantially more (plus 88) than its predecessor's predecessor government."
The upcoming black-red coalition's agreement under future Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) bears a resemblance to the incomplete contract of the black-yellow coalition that governed from 2009 to 2013 rather than the traffic light coalition agreement. This resemblance, according to the paper, is not a positive sign for the new government's performance.
- Coalition Agreement
- Bertelsmann Foundation
- CDU
- Federal Government
- German Press Agency
- The traffic light coalition, featuring Matthieß, implemented 236 projects out of their 453 promises, despite falling short of their ambitious goals, as stated in the Bertelsmann Foundation's analysis.
- The authors, Vehrkamp and Matthieß, in their paper obtained by the German Press Agency, argue that the new black-red coalition may not have learned from the traffic light government's mistakes, as its coalition agreement is less definitive and less ambitious.
- The upcoming black-red coalition, under Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), bears a resemblance to the incomplete contract of the previous black-yellow coalition, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation paper, which is not a positive sign for the new government's performance.
- The analysis by the Bertelsmann Foundation suggests that the success of the incoming black-red coalition might be compared to the traffic light government, with concerns about the new coalition's ability to fulfill its promises, as indicated by the authors' interpretation of the coalition agreements.
