Abstract
The fiftieth anniversary of the Federal Republic is cause for reflection about the strength of its democratic institutions. Among them, the major political parties, including the Social Democratic Party (SPD), have been strong proponents of a pluralist system. The SPD knows from historical experience that the preservation of democracy is crucial not only to its own survival but to the achievement of its goals of reducing inequalities in income and increasing social justice. From its inception in 1875 under a hostile authoritarian system, it was not always able to operate freely. It was banned by Chancellor Bismarck from 1878 to 1890 and suppressed by Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945. In both instances the party was able to reconstitute itself and become a major political player.
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Notes and References
Robert Michels, Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Germany (New York: Collier, reprint, 1962), p. 121.
For details see Gerard Braunthal, The West German Social Democrats Since 1969: A Party in Power and Opposition, 2nd edn (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1994), pp. 15–23.
For an autobiography, see Willy Brandt, My Life in Politics (New York: Viking, 1992), translated from Erinnerungen (Berlin: Propyläen, 1989).
Gerard Braunthal, ‘The 1989 Basic Program of the German Social Democratic Party’, Polity vol. 25, no. 3 (Spring 1993), pp. 375–99.
Gerard Braunthal, ‘The Social Democrats: From Offense to Defense’, in Russell J. Dalton (ed.), Germans Divided: The 1994 Bundestag Elections and the Evolution of the German Party System (Oxford: Berg, 1996), pp. 48–50.
See also Stephen J. Silvia, ‘The Social Democratic Party of Germany’, in David P. Conradt, Gerald R. Kleinfeld, George K. Romoser and Christian Ste (eds), Germany’s New Politics (Providence, RI: Berghahn, 1995), pp. 131–48.
For a biography, see Werner Filmer and Heribert Schwan, Oskar Lafontaine (Dusseldorf: Econ, 1996).
SPD Vorstand, ‘Presseservice der SPD’, no. 228/97, 5 June 1997; Uwe Jun, ‘Inner-Party Reforms: The SPD and Labour Party in Comparative Perspective’, German Politics, vol. 5, no. 1 (April 1996), pp. 58–80.
Donald Sassoon, One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century (London: I.B. Tauris, 1996), p. 767.
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© 1999 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Braunthal, G. (1999). The SPD Leaders in Power and in Opposition. In: Merkl, P.H. (eds) The Federal Republic of Germany at Fifty. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27488-8_9
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