Abstract
This chapter sets out the concepts and approach followed in the book. It introduces the reader to the concept of popular support, establishes key lines of inquiry and sets out its contribution by situating it within the broader study of German politics. A key part of this concerns how popular support has been approached in large-scale comparative studies. These studies contain a number of deficiencies, including a lack of sensitivity to the defining concepts and institutional configuration of the German model of democracy. By omitting these important aspects, doubt surrounds the findings and necessitates a fresh inquiry. The study thus identifies a more sensitive set of survey indicators and shows how the subject may be more fruitfully approached in the remainder of the book. Finally, it sets out the chapter division and summarises the principal findings.
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Notes
- 1.
Thomas Mann, Reflections of an Unpolitical Man (New York, NY: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co, 1983), pp. 16–17.
- 2.
Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1963).
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Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York, NY: Avon Books, 1992).
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Russell J. Dalton, Democratic Challenges Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
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Frederick Weil, ‘The Development of Democratic Attitudes in Eastern and Western Germany6’ in Frederick Weil (ed.) Research on Democracy and Society: Democratization in Eastern and Western Europe (Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1993).
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Hans-Dieter Klingemann, Mapping Support for Democracy in Pippa Norris (ed.) Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 53.
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Richard Rose, William Mishler and Christian Haerpfer, Democracy and Its Alternatives (London: Polity Press, 1998).
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Max Kaase and Kenneth Newton, Beliefs in Government (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 62.
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For an excellent analysis, see Oscar W. Gabriel, Eric Kerrouche and Suzanne S. Schüttemeyer and Sven T. Siefken, ‘Introduction: Political Representation in France and Germany’, in Oscar W. Gabriel, Eric Kerrouche and Suzanne S. Schüttemeyer (eds.), Political Representation in France and Germany: Attitudes and Activities of Citizens and MPs (London: Palgrave, 2018), pp. 1–57.
- 10.
Kai Arzheimer, Politikverdrossenheit: Bedeutung, Verwendung und Empirische Relevanz eines Politikwissenschaftlichen Begriffs (Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag, 2002). See also: Oscar W. Gabriel and Lena Masch, ‘Attitudes towards Representation and Political Trust’ in Oscar W. Gabriel, Eric Kerrouche and Suzanne S. Schüttemeyer (eds.), Political Representation in France and Germany: Attitudes and Activities of Citizens and MPs (London: Palgrave, 2018), p. 286.
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- 13.
See, for example, Renate Köcher, Allensbacher Jahrbuch der Demoskopie 2003–2009 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009), pp. 288–289.
- 14.
Politikverdrossenheit or politikmüdigkeit, for example, denote a sullenness towards the personnel and activities of politics, but overlap with politikerverdrossenheit, parteiverdrossenheit and demokratieverdrossenheit.
- 15.
Köcher, Ibid. p. 118. See also, pp. 48–49 for evaluations of the GDR.
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Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave, (University of Oklahoma Press, 1993).
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Pippa Norris, Democratic Deficit: Critical Citizens Revisited (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
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Robert A. Dahl, A Preface to Democratic Theory (London: University of Chicago Press, 2006).
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Russell J. Dalton, Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices, 2004.
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Wolfgang Zapf, ‘How to Evaluate German Unification’, FS III00-404. (Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrums Berlin für Sozialforschung, 2000).
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- 22.
Petra Bauer-Kaase and Max Kaase conclude ‘it will require a lengthy process to mellow estrangement and antipathies between the two German peoples’ (p. 21). See, Petra Bauer-Kaase and Max Kaase ‘Five Years of Unification: The Germans on the Path to Inner Unity’ German Politics 5/1 (1996), pp. 1–26.
- 23.
Eckhard Priller, ‘Demokratieentwicklung und gesellschaftliche Mitwirkung in Ostdeutschland: Kontinuitäten und Veränderungen’ FS III 99–410. (Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrums Berlin für Sozialforschung, 1999).
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Hans-Dieter Klingemann and Richard I. Hofferbert, ‘Germany: A New “Wall in the Mind”?’ Journal of Democracy 5/1 (1994), pp. 31–44.
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Robert Rohrschneider, Learning Democracy: Democratic and Economic Values in Unified Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 74–75.
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The concept of Fragebogendemokraten was not merely linked to giving perceived ‘democratic’ answers to questions; but was also used to test commitment during the de-nazifaction processes in the post-war period.
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Bettina Westle, ‘Demokratie und Sozialismus. Politische Ordnungsvorstellungen im vereinten Deutschland zwischen Ideologie, Protest und Nostalgie’. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 46/4 (1994), pp. 571–596.
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Robert A. Dahl, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition (London: Yale University Press, 1971), pp. 6–7.
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See, for example, Richard I. Hofferbert and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, ‘Democracy and Its Discontents in Germany’, International Political Science Review, 22/4 (2001), pp. 365–366.
- 31.
See, for example, Renate Köcher, Allensbacher Jahrbuch der Demoskopie 2003–2009: Die Berliner Republik (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009), p. 119.
- 32.
There has been little improvement in these levels in the intervening time period. The question used is: ‘Glauben Sie, die Demokratie, die wir in der Bundesrepublik haben, is die beste Staatsform, oder gibt es seine andere Staatsform, die bessere ist?’ The levels began at 41 per cent in the east in 1990 and declined into the 30 per cent range, reaching 36 per cent in 2009. The proportions supporting an alternative system remain a minority, albeit one that has risen from 19 per cent in 1990 to 24 per cent in 2009. See, Renate Köcher, Allensbacher Jahrbuch der Demoskopie 2003–2009: Die Berliner Republik (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009), p. 116.
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Katja Neller, DDR-Nostalgie: Dimensionen der Orienteirungen der Ostdeutschen genüber der ehemaligen DDR, Ihre Ursachen und politischen Konnotationen (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2006), pp. 135–146.
- 34.
The Allensbacher data from 2002 is interesting on this point. When asked to list the factors most associated with a democracy, the percentage of eastern respondents noting core principles associated with democracy declined in the east. For example, the proportion noting fair and free elections declined from 76 per cent in 1990 to 60 per cent in 2000 (the corresponding figure for the West is 73 per cent). See Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann and Renate Köcher, Allensbacher Jahrbuch der Demoskopie: Balkon des Jahrhunderts (Munich: K.G. Saur, 2002), p. 597.
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Petra Bauer, ‘Politische Orientierungen im Übergang’, Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 43 (1991), pp. 433–453.
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On the Mauer im Köpfen, see: Heiner Meulemann, Werte und nationale Identität im vereinten Deutschland. Erklärungensansätze der Umgangforschung. (Opladen: Leske und Budrich, 1998). On Sondermentalität, see: Gert Pickel ‘Eine ostdeutsche “Sonder”-mentalität acht Jahre nach der Vereinigung? Fazit einer Diskussion um Sozialisation und Situation’. In Susanne Pickel, Gert Pickel and Dieter Walz Politische Einheit—Kultureller Zwiespalt. Die Erklärung politischer und demokratischer Einstellungen vor der Bundestagswahl 1998 (Frankfurt am Main: Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1998).
- 37.
One of the most sobering assessments was made by Dieter Fuchs, who argued that ‘[t]he ‘inner unity’ of the political community of unified Germany is still to be expected’ and ‘the political culture in East Germany is not congruent with the democracy of a unified Germany’ (emphasis in original). Dieter Fuchs, ‘The Democratic Culture of Unified Germany’ in Pippa Norris, Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 142–143.
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Richard Rose, Governing without Consensus: An Irish Perspective (London: Faber and Faber, 1971), pp. 32–33.
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- 46.
Almond and Verba, The Civic Culture, p. 366.
- 47.
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- 54.
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The details are complex and unsettled: An under-responsive democracy may lack input legitimacy, but revamping it in the ways proposed runs the risk of making it over-responsive to a neo-populist agenda, which, in turn, could marginalise the interests of important social groups.
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Campbell, R. (2019). Introduction. In: Popular Support for Democracy in Unified Germany. New Perspectives in German Political Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03792-5_1
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