Ringen um den Regelsatz

Erwerbslosenproteste und die Neubestimmung der Hartz-IV-Höhe

Abstract

In 2010 the German constitutional court
obligated legislative and government to revaluate the rate of welfare payments. Hence a window
of opportunity opened for poor people’s movement activists to initiate a broad debate
on scarce benefits in the German workfare regime of „Hartz IV” and to promote significantly
higher benefits. We discuss the crucial factors of their campaign’s failure such as the weakness
of the hardly existing movement of the unemployed, the interests of parties and administration,
and the important politico-economic function of „Hartz IV”.