Legislating (Dis)entitlements

Abstract This chapter considers the role of municipalities in shaping social citizenship by comparing historical Germany with contemporary Europe. It demonstrates that the municipalities in contemporary and historical Germany were generally very reluctant to granting rights to newcomers and saw many problems with free movement but had very different success in lobbying legislators at higher levels. In the North German Confederation and the German Empire, strong political leadership at the federal level largely overruled local opposition to welfare integration. In contrast, in present-day Germany and the EU, municipalities successfully influenced national legislation to restrict access for certain groups, particularly economically inactive EU citizens moving between member states. These divergent outcomes are attributed to variations in the presence (or absence) of strong leadership figures and the institutional leverage available to municipal actors.