University of California at Berkeley, Center for German and European Studies

Transformation of German Party System
Conducted jointly by the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies and the Center for German and European Studies

Institutional Elasticity in Changing Political Order: The East German Nonprofit Sector and its Contribution to Political Integration

Wolfgang Seibel Verwaltungswissenschaften Universitat Konstanz

Working Paper 7.1 March 1996

According to West German standards, there is only a weak nonprofit sector in East Germany today. The East German quasi-nonprofit sector nonetheless is an indispensable institutional ingredient of political integration. It is characterized by an amazing degree of structural and ideological continuity. Much of its organizational setting dates back to the pre-1989 era. Both funding and managerial attitudes are shaped by state-centeredness. Nonprofit institutions are heavily engaged in mitigating the social costs of economic transformation. Many of them, especially at the local level, are controlled by members of the former-communist PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism). Thus, the East German quasinonprofit sector presumably integrates two important societal groups more effectively than the regular polity: those alienated from the new democracy due to economic disappointment or deprivation and those alienated from the new democracy due to ideological reasons (former communists in particular). This indicates a remarkable institutional elasticity whose main function is to "synchronize" the dramatically accelerated pace of political change and the much slower pace of societal change.

Germany and the Comparative Political Party Experience: Sclerotic or Dynamic Institutions?

Christopher S. Allen Dept. of Political Science, University of Georgia

Working Paper 7.2 March, 1996

This paper takes a 4 part perspective that: 1 ) looks comparatively at parties and party systems in the USA, UK, France and Italy to corroborate the claims of whether the German parties are in crisis or not. This analysis identifies different institutional "pathologies" in each of the 4 countries' party systems; 2) examines briefly some of the core literature on political parties to verify exactly what parties are and what they are supposed to do in a democratic polity; 3) suggests that German parties--and the party system--have developed a party system characterized by "dynamic stability" at three levels: macro institutional, party systemic, and intra-party; and 4) using a "new institutionalist" perspective, suggests that characterizing collective institutions such as parties as "rigid" or "sclerotic" often misses the internal dynamics of these unique collective political institutions.

The German Party System, 1850-1996

Hans-Georg Betz Dept. of European Studies Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies John Hopkins University

Working Paper 7.3 March 1996

In comparative terms the German party system is one of the most stable in Western Europe. In large parts, this is the result of the fact that the major German parties have been able to maintain their core constituencies while appealing to emerging social groups. The German party system is based on several major cleavages which, in the nineteenth century, gave rise to distinct sociocultural milieus. If two world wars and the Nazi dictatorship discredited the national subculture, the religious and class cleavages continued to play a significant, albeit declining, role in the postwar period. Social modernization and the emergence of a new middle class first favored the SPD, then the CDU. Younger new middle class cohorts, however, organized their own sociocultural milieu, based on a new, largely value-based cleavage. Its political expression have been the Greens. The latest sociocultural milieu to emerge in Germany has been the result of unification. Based on a new regional cleavage opposing east and west, it has found its expression in the PDS.

The Major Parties: Dealignment and Realignment in Post-Cold War Germany

Henry Kreikenbaum Dept. of Political Science, Humboldt-Universitat, Berlin

Working Paper 7.4 April 1996

The party alignment in West Germany, determined by traditional cleavages, has been declining since the 1980s. Since the fall of the Berlin wall, Germany has been confronted by ideological conflicts determined the voting behavior of the East Germans. The central hypothesis is that party alignment can be used as a comprehensive paradigm for the process of social and political dealignment and realignment. The author describes the process of dealignment and realignment in West Germany based on empirical data for the period up to 1989. He then examines the cleavage structure in the GDR and in the new Lander. Lastly, he discusses possible future developments in the coalitions between voters and parties in an united Germany as determined by the cleavages.

Unification and the Changing Fortunes of Germany's Parties of the Far Right

John Leslie Dept. of Political Science University of California, Berkeley

Working Paper 7.5 May 1996

Most analyses of contemporary far right parties in Germany attempt to do one of two things. Either they focus on the internal organization and supporters of these parties, tracing changes over time, or they compare these parties and their voters with similar movements elsewhere in Western Europe and the advanced industrialized world. This paper takes a different tack. First, it situates Germany's far right parties in the institutional constraints of their political environment at the end of the 1980's, where they emerged to transcend the critical 5% electoral threshold in a number of elections. Then it asks whether reunification has reshuffled these constraints. It concludes that, while unification created a different social atmosphere for these parties, it did not disrupt tight institutional constraints and, in fact, may have all but eliminated the electoral chances for these parties for the time being. Moving away from studies which view Germany's far right as just another reflection of general changes sweeping across the economies and societies of the industrial democracies, this paper makes the point that--as elsewhere--these parties are very much creatures of their environment whose chances for "success" depend on the structure of the national political system.

The Identity Crisis of Alliance '90/The Greens: The New Leff at a Crossroad

Andrei S. Markovits Board of Studies in Politics University of California, Santa Cruz Stephen J. Silvia School of International Service, American University

Working Paper 7.6 November 1995

The German Greens--arguably the most important manifestation of "post-materialist" politics anywhere in the advanced industrial world - are experiencing a crisis of identity on three levels: that of movement, that of party, and that of political actor. We argue that this crisis hails as much from the internal logic of Green politics as it does from the immense external changes that beset all of German, indeed European, politics over the past seven years.

A Structure-Agency Dilemma: East German Political Parties and Unification

Ann L. Phillips Dept. of Comparative and Regional Studies School of International Service, American University

Working Paper 7.7 March 1996

A critical question raised during the rapid institutional unification of Germany in 1990 was what role east German parties should play, given the pivotal role of parties as agents of democracy in West Germany and the existence of "sister parties" in the GDR. The process raised a structure-agency dilemma, central to this study of east German political parties since 1989. The paper assesses the transformation of parties as institutions through changes in party leadership, membership, organization and program. Next, parties as agents of democratization are evaluated based on their ability to perform traditional party functions. The fusion of east and west German parties is a critical variable influencing parties as institutions and as agents. Finally, the salience of parties to east German public life is analyzed. Here comparisons are drawn with west Germany and with the new democracies in Central-East Europe. The study concludes that democratization of the parties as institutions is a success; however, their efficacy as agents of democracy and unification is weak. Cultural and contextual differences undercut the ability of west German structures and institutions to take root.

From Occupation to Unification: Political Parties and Democratic Transformations in Germany

Michaela W. Richter Dept. of Political Science College of Staten Island, CUNY

Working Paper 7.8 March 1996

The distinctive characteristics of the Federal Republic's democratic party state emerged during the occupation. They were part of a successful strategy by Kurt Schumacher and Konrad Adenauer to overcome a strong domestic anti-party legacy and Allied ambivalence toward a return of partisan politics. The emerging party state was consolidated both by the supportive rulings of the Federal Constitutional Court and a stable tri-partite party system. In the process, the Federal Republic's founding parties have achieved a privileged position unrivaled among Western democracies. Since 1949, the democratic party state has provided effective, stable, consensual government conducive both to the economic miracle and the emergence of a democratic culture. Yet for the past decade, declining popular support for the main parties has raised the specter of a party crisis. Its roots have often been attributed to the negative impact of the party state. At the height of this debate, a popular revolution led to the collapse of the East German Communist regime and the opening of the Wall. This provided new opportunities for the West German parties which played a critical role in unification. That step once again put the West German parties in charge of a democratic transformation. Their response was essentially to extend the West German party state eastward--with both its flaws and strengths. Although the West German parties have been held responsible for many of the problems of unification, their performance and that of the democratic party state has been impressive. Nonetheless unification has strained the traditional political and party system that cannot be ignored. Further cartelization of the parties and the uncritical acceptance of the party state theory as a legitimating formula could hinder appropriate reforms and weaken Germany's democracy.