Germans don't love bureaucracy; in fact, we hate it. But everything must be very correct and thought through, which leads to complicated laws. On top of that,

Germans don't love bureaucracy; in fact, we hate it. But everything must be very correct and thought through, which leads to complicated laws. On top of that, we have some misplaced idea that everybody must have a lot of local laws. We call it federalism, and it has some benefits, but I think we use it for far too many things. Both things together make it very hard to reduce bureaucracy or offer digital services. It is very embarrassing.