Politics and Contemporary History in Germany – Background

Political culture is used to refer to the "soft" factors in politics: political beliefs, attitudes and values characteristic of a society. It has to do with collective mentalities, which have an emotional or intellectual basis and which are distinctive for the identity of a community. Many features extend beyond national borders. Germany's political culture today, for example, is a member of the "extended family" of liberal Western democracies, and it has the reputation of being one of the most stable among them. In a period of globalisation, Germany takes a leading role, particularly in economical terms.

There are also features which are particularly characteristic of a nation. One of these in Germany's case is not least the late foundation of the nation (1870/71) and its fractured relationship to the Western world. While a strong, democratic national movement had been active in the early 19th century, the elites of the German Reich took a "special path", illiberal in comparison with its Western neighbours, and one that was to lead to the National Socialist dictatorship.

An important feature of the Federal Republic of Germany is that the people wanted to learn from this disastrous experience; generations born after 1945, too, took responsibility for the Holocaust, most recently in paying compensation to forced labourers. The Basic Law underlined the re-establishment of democracy in Germany, a process which was only completed in 1990 with the collapse of the GDR and unification of the states that had been divided in 1945. A special feature is its "anti-extremism", reflected in such unique institutions as the Offices for Protection of the Constitution, the five-per cent hurdle for entry into the Bundestag and regional parliaments, and the possibility to ban political parties.

For many years, the watchword was that "Bonn" should not become like "Weimar". On account of its restraint in foreign policy and military matters and its strength as an exporting country, the Federal Republic was seen abroad as an economic giant and a political dwarf, and it was one of the declared pioneers of European Union. Only recently has it been expected that Germany should take over global responsibility, including military deployments.

Since the sixties in particular, extensive democratisation has led to the legacy of an authoritarian state being replaced by an open, participative, civil society. This is due in no small measure to the success of the German currency and economy. The "social market economy" contrasts with other capitalist structures; one speaks of "Rhenish capitalism", where organised interest groups and autonomous parties to collective pay agreements play a special role and there is a strong propensity for consensus. Guaranteeing the division of power and social peace through proportional representation distinguishes Germany' political culture from that of competitive democracies, such as the United States and Great Britain. That is also the way that political communication is organised, having been shaped over a long period by public media corporations.

In contrast with the Anglo-American two-party system with majority voting, there are only rarely absolute majorities in the Federal Republic of Germany; coalition governments made up of two or more parties are typical, from municipal to Federal level. Due to its great influence, Germany appropriately has been labelled a party democracy. Radical forces in terms of ethnicity, religion and world view had no chance after 1949, the political system gravitates to the centre, and there is a comparatively high level of legitimacy and political support. Two big popular parties, the CDU/CSU and the SPD, dominate, and the only other parties to establish themselves nation-wide are the Liberals (FDP) and the Greens, whose origins lie in the environmental movement; there is also the PDS, a regional party in eastern Germany. That reflects the difficulties of overcoming the forty-year division of Germany.

The Federal President and the Federal Constitutional Court are held in the highest esteem, while the reputations of the parties and of parliament have declined sharply in recent times. On account of the fact that Federal Chancellors from Konrad Adenauer to Angela Merkel have always had a special status enshrined in the Basic Law, one speaks of a chancellor's democracy. This differs from traditional parliamentarianism just as much as it does from presidential democracies in East and West. Not least, Germany is outstanding for the self-administration of its municipalities and the independence of the Länder within the federal democracy.