Review // Walter Frenz: Reducing Bureaucracy – Using the Examples of Infrastructure, Climate Protection and the Raw Materials Sector
Walter Frenz: Bürokratieabbau – Am Beispiel der Infrastruktur, des Klimaschutzes und der Rohstoffwirtschaft (Reducing Bureaucracy – Using the Examples of Infrastructure, Climate Protection and the Raw Materials Sector), 1st edition, Year of publication: 2026, Pages: 221, Publisher: Erich Schmidt Verlag, Language: German, 978-3-503-24213-9 (E-ISBN), 978-3-503-24212-2 (Print-ISBN).
Prof. Walter Frenz, Maitre en Droit Public and Professor of Mining, Environmental and European Law at RWTH Aachen University, Aachen/Germany, has published his latest work, “Bürokratieabbau (Reducing Bureaucracy)”, which approaches a politically charged term with legal objectivity – and is all the more effective for it. Instead of making sweeping complaints about excessive state intervention, Frenz pinpoints precisely where regulatory density becomes a problem in Germany: in infrastructure, climate protection and the raw materials sector. Using concrete examples – some drawn from the practical realities of the energy transition – he illustrates how excessive regulation delays projects or even prevents them altogether. His conclusion is clear: the state must create the framework conditions that make effective action possible in the first place. In his view, reducing bureaucracy is thus not merely a question of efficiency, but a prerequisite for the exercise of fundamental rights and for the functioning of democracy.
The book’s strength lies in its combination of constitutional rigour and practical insight. Frenz argues that reducing bureaucracy is not merely a political aspiration, but may even be constitutionally required under certain conditions. This is a challenging, deliberately provocative idea – and it is precisely this that makes the book so interesting in the current debate. Using concrete cases, the author demonstrates how complicated procedures, fragmented responsibilities and protracted decision-making processes paralyse government action.
Frenz does not stop at the diagnosis, however. He proposes fixed approval deadlines, the consolidation of responsibilities within a few authorities, simplified decision-making procedures and greater use of digital and AI-supported processes. In many places, this appears plausible, reform-oriented and surprisingly concrete. It is precisely for readers from the fields of administration, politics and law that the book’s particular value lies: it is not merely a critique, but a clearly formulated reform programme.
However, this clarity also has discernible limits. Frenz’s normative claim that the reduction of bureaucracy is constitutionally mandated is convincingly derived, but by no means without alternatives. Some readers may wish for a broader examination of competing constitutional interpretations here. Added to this is a limited empirical depth: the examples are vivid and politically illuminating, yet the book is not an empirical work of administrative research. At its core, it remains argued in legal-systematic terms.
Consequently, “Bürokratieabbau” is not an essay for a broad audience, but a specialist text with a clear legal slant. Economic, political or sociological counter-perspectives tend to remain in the background. Nor are the risks of an overly far-reaching acceleration discussed as intensively as the explosive nature of the topic might suggest.
Nevertheless, Frenz has produced an important book: precise, relevant and argumentatively provocative. Anyone wishing to understand the German debate on the state, planning and regulation beyond mere buzzwords will find here a well-founded and incisive voice. Not an easy read – but one that engages with the discussion.
Dipl.-Ing. Karsten Gutberlet
Editorial Team
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