Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-fwgfc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T09:25:56.803Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Changing Party Scene in West Germany and the Consequences for Stable Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Donald Schoonmaker
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the 1980's the West Germany party system finds itself in a new stage of development which bodes well for the continued long-term development of the second republic. Drawing on research from the comparative historical development of party systems and democratic regimes as well as from analysis of the recent elections, it is suggested that the concentration process in the party system of 1949–1983 has evolved into a more dispersed pattern with predominantly positive consequences for the Bonn democracy. The rise of the Greens, the gradual decline of the SPD, and the center-right coalition of CDU/CSU/FDP are analyzed from the standpoint of their contribution to stable and effective democracy. The nature of the coalition dynamics on both sides of the right-left spectrum are discussed with the conclusion that while West Germany is predominantly a Parteiendemokratie, the new forms of participation, the further development of pluralism, and the increased competition of ideas make it a democracy governed essentially by parliamentary parties yet more responsive to extraparliamentary forces.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , Winter 1988 , pp. 49 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Doering, Herbert and Smith, Gordon, eds., Party Government and Political Culture in Western Germany (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982), p. 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. Barnes, Samuel H. and Kaase, Max, eds., Political Action: Mass Participation in Five Western Democracies (Beverly Hills: SAGE Publications, 1979).Google Scholar

3. Dahl, Robert, Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy: Autonomy vs. Control (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982).Google Scholar

4. Marshall, Thomas Humphrey, Citizenship and Social Class, and Other Essays (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950).Google Scholar

5. LaPalombara, Joseph and Weiner, Myron, eds., Political Parties and Political Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Huntington, Samuel P., “Postindustrial Politics: How Benign Will It Be?” Comparative Politics 6, no. 2 (1974): 163–91CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kirchheimer, Otto, “Germany: The Vanishing Opposition,” in Political Oppositions in Western Democracies, ed. Dahl, Robert (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966), pp. 237–89Google Scholar; Dahl, Robert, “Patterns of Opposition,”Google Scholar in Dahl, , Political OppositionsGoogle Scholar; Daadler, Hans, “Parties, Elites, and Political Development in Western Europe”Google Scholar in LaPalombara, and Weiner, , Political Parties and Political DevelopmentGoogle Scholar; Dahrendorf, Ralf, Society and Democracy in Germany (Garden City: Doubleday, 1967)Google Scholar; Stern, Fritz, The Politics of Illiberalism (New York: Knopf, 1963).Google Scholar

6. Stern, , Politics of IlliberalismGoogle Scholar; Craig, Gordon, Modern German History, 1866–1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978)Google Scholar; Dahrendorf, , Society and Democracy in Germany.Google Scholar

7. Eckstein, Harry, A Theory of Stable Democracy (Princeton: Center for International Studies, 1960).Google Scholar

8. Bracher, Karl Dietrich, The German Dilemma: The Throes of Political Emancipation (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971)Google Scholar; Mommsen, Hans, “National Socialism — Continuity and Change,” in Fascism: A Reader's Guide, ed. Laqueur, Walter (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), pp. 179–210.Google Scholar

9. Schumpeter, Joseph, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (New York: Harper and Row, 1947).Google Scholar

10. A well-written explanation of this idea of hugging the center has been developed by Gordon Smith in his essay, “The German Volkspartei and the Career of the Catch-all Concept,” in Doering, and Smith, , Party Government and Political Culture.Google Scholar

11. Almond, Gabriel A. and Verba, Sidney, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. Dahl, , Political Oppositions, p. 400.Google Scholar

13. Ibid.

14. von Beyme, Klaus, Parteien in westlichen Demokratien, 2nd ed. rev. (Munich: Piper, 1984)Google Scholar; idem, “Neue soziale Bewegungen und politische Parteien,” Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, B44/86, 1 11 1986, pp. 30–39Google Scholar; idem, Das politische System der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 5th ed. (Munich: Piper, 1987)Google Scholar; Raschke, Joachim et al. , ed., Bürger und Parteien: Ansichten und Analysen einer schwierigen Beziehung (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Guggenberger, Bernd, Bürgerinitiativen in der Parteien-demokratie (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1980), pp. 94–119Google Scholar; idem, “Von der Bürgerinitiativbewegung zur Umweltpartei,” in Bürgerinitiativen und repräsentatives System, ed. Guggenberger, B. and Kempf, Udo, 2nd ed. rev. (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1984).Google Scholar

15. Raschke, , Bürger und Parteien.Google Scholar

16. Ibid., pp. 9–20.

17. Von Beyme, , Das politische System, p. 244.Google Scholar

18. Katzenstein, Peter, Policy and Politics in West Germany: The Growth of a Semisovereign State (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1987), pp. 380–81.Google Scholar

19. Von Beyme, , Das politische System, p. 244.Google Scholar

20. Kirchheimer has two essays with similar ideas: “The Transformation of the Western European Party Systems,” in LaPalombara, and Weiner, , Political Parties and Political DevelopmentGoogle Scholar; and “Germany: The Vanishing Opposition,” in Dahl, , Political Oppositions, pp. 237–89.Google Scholar

21. Kirchheimer, Otto, “The Transformation of the West European Party Systems,” p. 195.Google Scholar

22. A literary complement to Kirchheimer's view is the description of the party politicians in Boll, Heinrich's Billiards at Half-Past Nine (1960).Google Scholar They come from two different parties, but they are Tweedledee and Tweedledum in cahoots; see Schoonmaker, Donald, “Novelist and Social Scientist: Two Views of the West German Political System,” Polity (1982).Google Scholar For extensive comment on Kirchheimer's thesis, see Doering, and Smith, , Party Government and Political Culture.Google Scholar

23. Inglehart, Ronald, The Silent Revolution: Changing Values and Political Values among Western Publics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977)Google Scholar; Baker, Kendall R., Dalton, Russell J., and Hildebrandt, Kai, Germany Transformed (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981)Google Scholar; Barnes, and Kaase, , Political ActionGoogle Scholar; Guggenberger, , Bürgerinitiativen.Google Scholar

24. Inglehart, , Silent Revolution.Google Scholar In a recent paper I have analyzed two frontal attacks on the Inglehart, thesis (“Postindustrialism, Postmaterialism and Populism, Green Style: Working the Cutting Edge of West Germany” [Southern Political Science Association, Charlotte, NC, 5–7 11 1987]).Google Scholar These attacks by Alber and Bürklin challenge the conventional wisdom about postmaterialism in general and the Greens in particular. Alber notes: “the Greens could be characterized accordingly more as a party of frustrated academic plebeians than as an organization of educated new elite strata of the postindustrial phase” (Alber, Jens, “Modernis-ierung, neue Spannungslinien und die politischen Chancen der Grünen,” Politische Viertelsjahresschrift 3 [1985]: 220).Google Scholar

25. Schoonmaker, Donald, “Between Movement and Party: The Challenge of the Greens,” in Why Parties Fail, ed. Peter Merkl and Kay Lawson (Princeton: Princeton University Press, forthcoming).Google Scholar

26. Löwenthal, Richard, “Identität und Zukunft der Sozialdemokratie; Lassen sich die ‘Aussteiger’ integrieren?” Die Zeit, Nr. 51, 11 12 1981, pp. 9–10Google Scholar; Roth, Rein-hold, “Die niedersächische Landstagwahl vom 15. Juni 1986: Normalität des Wählerverhalterns,” Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 18, no. 1 (1987): 5–15Google Scholar; Saretzki, Thomas, “Die Wahl zur Hamburger Bürgerschaft vom 9. November 1986: Ende des Traumes von der eigenen Mehrheit oder: Dies SPD vor der Bündis frage,”Google Scholaribid., pp. 16–37; Schultze, Rainer-Olaf, “Die Bundestagswahl 1987 — eine Bestätigung des Wandels,” Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, B12/87, 21 03 1987, pp. 3–17Google Scholar; Jesse, Eckhard, “Die Bundestagswahlen in Spiegel der repräsentativen Wahlstatistik,” Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 18, no. 3 (1987): 232–41Google Scholar; Schmitt, Rüdiger, “Die hessische Landtagswahl vom 5. April 1987: SPD in der ‘Modernisierungskrise,’”Google Scholaribid., no. 3 (1987): 343–60.

27. Langguth, Gerd, The Green Factor in German Politics (Boulder: Westview Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Kolinsky, Eva, Parties, Opposition and Society in West Germany (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984)Google Scholar; Muller-Rommel, Ferdinand and Wilke, Helmut, “Sozial-struktur und postmaterialistische Wertorientierungen von Okologisten,” Politische Vierteljahresschrift 4 (12 1981): 333–97Google Scholar; Papadakis, Elim, The Green Movement in West Germany (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984)Google Scholar; Raschke, , Bürger und Parteien.Google Scholar

28. Barnes, and Kaase, , Political ActionGoogle Scholar; Guggenberger, and Kempf, , Bürgerinitiativen und repräsentatives System.Google Scholar

29. Katzenstein, , Policy and Politics, p. x.Google Scholar

30. Schoonmaker, Donald, “Postindustrialism, Postmaterialism, and Populism, Green Style: Working the Cutting Edge in West Germany.” (Paper presented at the Southern Political Science Association Convention, Charlotte, 1987).Google Scholar

31. Infas, , Report, (1987).Google Scholar

32. Bickerich, Wolfram, ed., SPD und Grüne: Das neue Bündnis? (Rowohlt: Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1985).Google Scholar

33. Schultze, , “Die Bundestagswahl 1987 — eine Bestätigung des Wandels”Google Scholar; Dyson, Kenneth, “The Challenged Consensus: The 1987 German Elections,” Political Quarterly 58, no. 2 (1987): 152–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Smith, Gordon, “Consequences of the West German Election,” Government and Opposition 22, no. 2 (1987): 131–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Infas, (1987)Google Scholar; “Bitterer Sieg,” Der Spiegel, 01 1987Google Scholar; Frankfurter Rundschau.

34. This article by Schultze from Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 21 03 1987Google Scholar, has excellent bibliographical references. His other essays on Land elections are of similarly high quality.

35. Schultze, , “Die Bundestagswahl 1987 — eine Bestätigung des Wandels,” p. 16.Google Scholar Most of Schultze's statistics are derived from Forschungsgruppe Wahlen, Mannheim.

36. Ibid., p. 12.

37. Infas

38. Markovits, Andrei S., The Politics of the West German Trade Unions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986).Google Scholar

39. Braunthal, Gerard, The West German Social Democrats, 1969–1982 (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1983).Google Scholar

40. Saretzi, , “Die Wahl zur Hamburger Bürgerschaft,” p. 37.Google Scholar

41. Vol. 1, bk. 2, chap. 5 (1840).

42. A recent book on this topic is by Bellah, Robert et al. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).Google Scholar

43. A major work about Tocqueville's methodological and epistemological assumptions has been written by Saguiv Hadari, a perceptive political theorist at Stanford with refined skills in logical analysis, historical understanding, and interpretive power (unpublished manuscript, 1986).

44. One of the fine updates of the Tocqueville approach which bears on Germany is Kornhauser, William, The Politics of Mass Society (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1959).Google Scholar Another investigation of the possible benefits of a vigorous internal democracy within an association is the deviant case analysis of Lipset, S. M., Trow, Martin and Coleman, James, Union Democracy (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1956).Google Scholar

45. Sartori, Giovanni, Parties and Party Systems (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976) p. 15.Google Scholar

46. Ibid., p. 16.

47. Dahl, , Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy, p. 1.Google Scholar

48. Ibid., p. 38.

49. Ibid., chap. 4.

50. Brandt, Karl-Werner, Beusser, Detlef, and Ruch, Dieter, Aufbruch in eine andere Gesellschaft. Neue soziale Bewegungen in der Bundesrepublik, 3d ed. rev. (Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 1986).Google Scholar

51. Guggenberger, Bernd and Kempf, Udo (eds.). Bürgerinitiativen und Repräsentatives System, 2nd ed. rev., (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1984).Google Scholar

52. Thaysen, Uwe, “Bürgerinitiativen Grüne/Alternative-Parlamente und Parteien in der Bundesrepublik,”Google Scholar in Guggenberger, and Kempf, , Bürgerinitiativen und Repräsentatives System, p. 130.Google Scholar

53. The phase is Eckstein, Harry's which he develops in his Pressure Group Politics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1960).Google Scholar By disjunctive function, Eckstein means: “For in democratic systems parties must perform simultaneously two functions which are, on the evidence, irreconcilable: to furnish efficient decision-makers and to represent accurately opinions. The best way to reconcile these functions in practice is to supplement the parties with an alternative set of representative organizations.”

54. Thaysen, , “Bürgerinitiativen Grüne/Alternative-Parlamente,” pp. 143–44.Google Scholar

55. Guggenberger, and Kempf, , Bürgerinitiativen und repräsentatives System, p. 15.Google Scholar

56. Sartori, Giovanni, Parties and Party Systems, p. 13.Google Scholar

57. Dyson, Kenneth, The State Tradition in Western Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980).Google Scholar

58. My understanding of “radical democratic” does not include the use of violence as a means. Radical here means going to the root of a problem by suggesting substantial change. It says nothing about means.

59. Brandt, et al. , Aufbruch in eine andere Gesellschaft.Google Scholar