Not that the best of assemblies or most far-reaching of constitutional changes could on its own radically reform the political system or achieve a juster distribution of power, let alone wealth.

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Stoiber has voiced anti-immigration views - but some observers doubt his willingness radically to reform Germany's protective labour laws and other economic rigidities.

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The fundamental blunder in all of these studies and reports is that the 1986 tax reform radically changed what is reported on income tax returns, so income before is not comparable to income after.

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What separates the big spenders from the improvers, McKinsey found, is the awareness that different types of school system respond to radically different types of reform.

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Contrary to the view of Europe as sclerotic and incapable of reform, no continent on earth has changed more radically at least in political terms than Europe since the end of the 1980s.

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"What we are looking at is the government making investment in social care, backing radical reform - not just tinkering at the edges... radically reforming care to give people the opportunity to save for their retirement and prepare for their retirement, " she added.

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With no leader vowing to alter course radically, the theme in 2012 will be muddling through, rather than a bold, competitiveness-raising reform of the welfare state and labour market that the country still sorely needs.

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