<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/14/business/14LABO.html> February 14, 2001 Single-Page Format Germany Weighs Overhaul of 'Consensus' Capitalism By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
FRANKFURT, Feb. 13 - The debate may sound tedious and even trivial. But behind a fog of discourse over arcane rules, Chancellor Gerhard SchrÃoder is about to decide an issue at the heart of efforts to overhaul and modernize Germany's ``consensus'' approach to capitalism.
The issue is what Germans call mitbestimmung, or co-determination, and it embodies the legally enshrined practice of letting workers have a direct say in the management of their companies. When Germany's economy soared in the decades after World War II, co-determination and cooperation between unions and management became a symbol of enlightened business. But when the economy floundered through much of the last decade, it suddenly seemed to represent inflexibility and the inability to compete.
After months of background political maneuvering, Mr. SchrÃoder is expected to announce on Wednesday whether he will support or water down an expansion of current laws.
His labor minister, Walter Riester, has drawn up the proposed expansion of workers' rights on the conviction that the law needs to catch up with changes in German industry.
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