Cases in Transportation Transition: Is German Federalsim an Opportunity or an Obstacle?

During the last century, a path-dependency did evolve in Germany’s transportation policy: the regu-latory framework, financial incentives and the infrastructure built created a transportation system strongly favoring automotive transport. Since these policies created a lot of problems as well, most notably traffic jams and environmental pollution, the question arises how societies can evolve away from the car and move towards more public transport. To answer this question, it is necessary to identify political factors hindering transportation transi-tion. Since transportation is a multi-level policy, Germany’s federal system may be both a challenge and a driver for transportation transition. According to recent studies of federalism, German coopera-tive federalism is likely to inhibit policy change since joint decision making between the federal and state (Land) levels introduces a higher number of veto players into the political system. Scharpf fa-mously labeled this phenomenon ‘policy interweaving’ (Politikverflechtung). In this way, German federalism may actually prevent transportation transition. On the other hand, self-rule in federalism enables states and municipalities to enact their own policies and hereby deviate from the current policy mainstream. This is especially true in the transport sector, were successful state or municipal transport projects may serve as living labs for other entities. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to contribute to the analysis on the role of federalism in the context of the German transportation transition. Is German federalism inhibiting transportation transi-tion – or on the contrary, is it a chance for the transition? To answer this question, in a first step the contribution clarifies the different responsibilities of the federal, state and municipal level in the transportation sector respectively. In a second step, it elaborates the two mentioned aspects of Ger-man federalism into two hypotheses regarding a successful transportation transition. The first hy-pothesis is based on the policy-interweaving theory, assuming that policy interweaving creates the political conditions that consequently inhibit a policy transition in the transport sector since it pro-motes path-dependency. The second hypothesis is based on the assumption that federalism pro-vides state and municipal actors with the necessary political leeway to enact policies in the first place. In the third step, these two hypotheses are tested regarding their plausibility in two case stud-ies. The first case study deals with the Autobahn A14 between Magdeburg and Schwerin. This case illustrates under which conditions traditional transport policies can prevail in German federalism. The second case study encompasses the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, a tram-train system in the entire re-gion that successfully broke with traditional transport policies hence establishing the so-called ‘Karlsruhe model’. The study concludes with the discussion of the results highlighting the necessity of certain condi-tions under which transportation transition can be successful in Germany’s federal system. The study concludes that contrary to the traditional understanding, German federalism provides the nec-essary leeway for state and local governments to deviate from the policy mainstream. However, so-cioeconomic conditions, which produce certain problem-situations for decision-makers at state and local level and to which they often react with traditional policy solutions, may hinder a successful transportation transition.