Waste in the public sphere. Reflexive modernization as cultural transformation - A comparison of France and Germany

The paper examines to which degree the occupational structure in the German civil service is affected by principles proposed in a comprehensive admini strative reform put forward in the 1990s. It considers the consequences of the proposed reform model for the existing Affirmative Action policy implem ented in the civil service, it argues that by modifying certain contractual norms in order to enhance the responsiveness to the goals of the organisat ion, the reform model affects those components of the civil service's occup ational structure that have a gender dimension. Those components have been derived from the underlying principles of a type of occupation-the civil se rvant-which came into being in the course of the institutionalization of mo dern bureaucracy in the German stares of the 19th century and, moreover, in the context of the differentiation of work and family as well as the estab lishment of a gender division of labour within the family. Furthermore, the relationship between the reform model and the Affirmative Action policy in troduced during the 1980s and ' 90s is discussed. This policy was based on a new legal understanding of equal rights which no longer considered equali ty of opportunities to be guaranteed if individual abilities were equal. Th e reasoning underlying this approach, by which the legal foundations for a new type of equal opportunity policy were established, is contrasted with t he reasoning underlying the administrative reform concepts outlined above. Finally, the paper assesses the chances of success of the new equal opportu nity policy that is part of the planned administrative reform model.