Growth coalitions within a corporatist setting: how manufacturing interests dominated the German response to the energy crisis

Since the introduction of the euro, German growth has been primarily based on exports. Signs of an exhaustion of Germany's export-led growth model were already evident before the energy crisis of 2022–23, which hit the country hard. German elites could have capitalized on the shock to rebalance their growth strategy. But the opposite happened: the government's adjustment strategy has aimed at doubling down on export-led growth and protecting the core export industries. This article investigates the politics of Germany's economic policymaking in hard times. We show that the government's economic policy responses were driven largely by an export sector growth coalition led by cross-class alliances in the chemical, metalworking, and engineering sectors. In contrast to previous corporatist decision-making, which aimed to include broader societal concerns in peak-level concertation, German corporatism has undergone a functional transformation toward the predominance of export sector distributive coalitions. This article's findings contribute to the emerging literature on the politics of growth models in comparative political economy.