【导读】距施罗德总理提出”议程2010“改革计划已有十年时间。在这十年里，德国的劳动力市场的面貌发生了巨大的改观，但对于这项改革成效似乎并非毫无争议。
Germany’s labour market
德国劳动力市场
Wunderreform
神奇改革
Ten years on, how does Germany’s Agenda 2010 package rate?
十年已过，德国的“议程2010”改革效果如何？
Mar 16th 2013 | BERLIN |From the print edition
WHEN Gerhard Schröder took to the podium in the Bundestag on March 14th, 2003, Germany was called the “sick man of Europe”. More than 4m Germans (11.6% of the workforce) were on the dole. A widespread assumption was that unemployment could never be defeated, merely “administered,” says Wolfgang Clement, who was the former chancellor’s labour and economics minister. Countering that spirit, Mr Schröder unveiled a package of reforms that he called Agenda 2010【1】. The leader of the opposition, a little-known physicist from east Germany called Angela Merkel, derided it as unambitious. But it soon became clear that the agenda would transform Germany’s labour market.
2003年3月14日，格哈特·施罗德总理站上德国联邦议院的讲台，此时的德国被称为“欧洲的病人”。有400多万的德国人（11.6%的工作人口）正领着失业救济金。当时广泛流行的观点认为德国的失业将永不会消除，只能，如前任联邦经济和劳工部长沃尔夫冈·克莱门特所言，被“控制“。但与此相反，施罗德总理却提出了这项被他命名为”议程2010“的一揽子改革方案。反对党领袖，不起眼的东德物理学家安格拉-默克尔，嘲笑这项方案毫无野心。但人们很快认识到，这项议程将为德国劳动力市场带来变革。
Ten years later, what is the verdict? Financial crises be damned, Germany stands as an economic beacon, with record employment and the lowest youth unemployment in Europe (see chart). Some countries are studying Agenda 2010 as if it were a manual. Mr Schröder is being feted at conferences all over the world.
十年以后，结果如何？财政危机被消除，经济繁荣的德国耀眼如灯塔，就业率创下纪录，并拥有全欧最低的青年失业率（见图表）。一些国家将”议程2010“视作学习的蓝本。全世界的会议争相邀请施罗德总理。
Only the Germans themselves, and notably Mr Schröder’s own Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, who were his coalition partners, seem unsure whether Agenda 2010 was a blessing or a curse. Now in opposition, but hoping this year to defeat Mrs Merkel, who replaced Mr Schröder as chancellor, the SPD cannot exactly disavow its own reform. But it is signalling to its blue-collar base and its own left wing that it might undo parts of it.
只有德国人自己，尤其是施罗德总理所属的社会民主党（SPD）与他的盟友绿党，对”议程2010“究竟是福是祸仍有所怀疑。现在，对于希望今年能够打败默克尔总理——施罗德总理的继任者——的反对党社民党而言，不能够完全否认自己曾做的改革。但他们正在向自己的蓝领选民以及党内左派释放信号，表示他们将部分否定这项改革的价值。
The aim was to make Germany’s labour market flexible again. It allowed small businesses to fire more easily, thus lowering their risk of hiring. It liberalised other rules, such as those for part-time and temporary work. Above all, it merged two types of benefits—federal assistance for the unemployed and municipal welfare payments—into one guarantee of a basic living standard (called Hartz IV, after the former Volkswagen manager who proposed it).
他们这么做目的在于使德国的劳动力市场恢复弹性。这将使小企业解雇员工时程序更便捷，因此降低了他们雇佣员工时所冒的风险。同时许多其他规则也将被放松，譬如关于兼职与零时工的条例。最重要的是，两项福利将被合并——联邦失业救济与市政福利金——成为一项基本生活标准保证（名为哈茨IV失业金，以给出这项提议的大众公司前经理的名字命名。）
The reform package also included rules that prod the unemployed into seeking, and accepting, work. Their time on benefits is limited to one year, or 18 months for those older than 55. And they cannot be picky about the jobs they take. This is what Mr Schröder calls “Fördern und Fordern”, a play on an umlaut that translates roughly as “assist and challenge”.
”议程2010“还包含有强制失业者寻找与接受工作的条例。靠救济金生活的时间上限为一年，对55岁以上人士来说是18个月。而且他们对获得的工作不能够挑剔。这便是施罗德总理口中的“Fördern und Fordern”——巧妙玩弄元音的谐语，被生硬地翻译为”协助与挑战“。
Politicians like Dietmar Bartsch of the Left, a party of former Communists from East Germany and radicals from the west, many of whom defected from the SPD after Agenda 2010, find the “challenging” undignified. By his telling, Germany’s employment boom is in fact a state-sponsored poverty programme, where armies of the underemployed eke out miserable wages in dead-end jobs.
来自德国左派党的——由前东德的社会主义者与前西德的激进分子组成的党派——政治家们，许多在”议程2010“实施后脱离社会民主党。而其中的一位，迪特马尔·巴奇，认为这”挑战“的口号并不体面。在他看来，德国的就业繁荣事实上只是一项国家支持的扶贫计划，于其中失业大军只得以终身职业中的微薄薪水勉强度日。
Not so, says Michael Hüther, director of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research, an employer-financed think-tank. Low-wage jobs rose mainly in the years before Agenda 2010 and have stayed constant since. Although the number of part-time jobs has grown, many of the people who have them in fact want them, so that they can, for example, care for children as well.
劳动力财政智库，科隆经济研究所的主任迈克尔·哈斯勒却不这么认为。低薪酬工作的数量增长主要发生在”议程2010“实施前，并且直到现在保持稳定。尽管兼职工作的数目在增长，但事实上这是人们的自发行为，因为这有利于他们，譬如，照顾孩子。
Agenda 2010 does not deserve all the credit for Germany’s success. Restrained growth in wages and healthy demand for exports were at least as important. But Germany would be foolish to ignore a real achievement—and an important lesson.
”议程2010“对德国的成功并不占全部功劳。工资的谨慎增长与健康的出口需求至少同样重要。但是对于德国人，忽视这项重要成就——也是重要一课，会是愚蠢的。
From the print edition: Europe
