Restrained neoliberalism: Approach to socio-economic reforms and unemployment in West Germany (1970s and 1980s)

Abstract

The central aim of this paper is to contribute, from a historiographical perspective, to the discussion on the processes of the neoliberal reform and the problem of unemployment deployed since the 1970s, particularly interested in the case of Federal Germany. Various social disciplines have observed the dynamics that have characterized the neoliberal itinerary in the Federal Republic of Germany, tending to agree to define the limited or restrained nature of this process. The paper presents an approach to the discussions and policy proposals developed in West Germany to address the problem of unemployment since the first oil crisis of 1973 until the 1980s. Within these discussions, there are some of the characteristics of the political discussion, together with proposals deployed by some of the most important trade union sectors of the period. The paper includes various interpretive perspectives from the social sciences and historiography, thus, it combines the review and interpretation of sources with the development of a state of the art.

Keywords: West Germany, unemployment, politics, reforms, neoliberalism.