Lessons of German bureaucracy
How we feel or think about it depends upon the context. ...As always.
This is a longer column than I ordinarily publish. If I had taken more time with it, I could’ve made it shorter. ;-) -ts
BERLIN (July 29, 2024) — Since Brexit, many-many Berliners — like people across the European Union, really — have become much more aware of how government institutions are shaping our lives. Or, better: How our best social-democratic institutions enable and empower us to shape our own lives.
Today, for example, young middle-class EU and UK citizens seem to have countless decent options for moving forward through life. Through various public institutions, they can study, find intellectual/spiritual (geistig) connection, seek apartments, and find (or at least explore and seek) meaningful, supportive work. It occurs to me that — although they cuss and fret about it, and sometimes with good reason — the many public-service German- and EU institutions young people use (and need) today generally make a positive difference and, although the wheels grind slowly at times, seem generally to be working in good order for a very large, diverse group of young people, although clearly not yet all of them.
It is strange, in an election year, not to hear more American conversation about its evolving (or deteriorating) bureaucracies and general quality-of-life. In my humble opinion, the conversations in Europe along these lines are worth understanding — and, perhaps, in as much detail as our domestic thinkers and writers are giving to it.
This week (below the paywall), I focus on Berlin bureaucracies that manage:
1) civic marriage services, permits, certifications, etc. and;
2) the data we give up when we officially register ourselves in a new (hopefully long-term) residence.