The Recent Healthcare Reforms in Germany – How does the concept of partisanship explain the positions of SPD and CDU/CSU?

Abstract: Since the 2000s, several healthcare reforms have been conducted within the healthcare system in Germany. These reforms aimed at decreasing healthcare costs by introducing market processes into public services, among other means. This paper examines the policy preferences and the discourse concerning the reforms of the two dominant parties in German politics, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU). It aims at revealing why the parties favoured and supported the particular reform policies. The partisan preferences are determined by applying the theoretical concepts of partisanship, power resources theory and a market-oriented power resources approach. This paper utilises the qualitative method of a discourse analysis. The expected preferences of the parties are compared with the political discourse and the policy outcomes regarding market-orientation and strategies of cost containment and recalibration. It can be demonstrated that the SPD repeatedly acted in a way that contradicted the assumed partisan preferences.