Germany in Comparative Politics PDF

and in Comparative Politics SECOND EDITION PATRICK H. O'NEIL I KARL FIELDS I DON SHARE ~ W.W. NORTON & COMPANY Independent Publishers Since 1923 Why Study This Case? Germany commands a prominent position in the world and a pivotal position in Europe. It is...

and in Comparative Politics SECOND EDITION PATRICK H. O'NEIL I KARL FIELDS I DON SHARE ~ W.W. NORTON & COMPANY Independent Publishers Since 1923 Why Study This Case? Germany commands a prominent position in the world and a pivotal position in Europe. It is Europe's largest and the world's third-largest exporting nation, Europe's biggest economy, the European Union's most populous country, and an integral member of Europe's economic, political, and security organizations. Situated in the heart of the Continent, Germany today in many ways typifies the political, social, and cultural values and institutions of Europe and offers a useful window into the political institutions and public policies shared broadly by many of its European neighbors. By and large, Germans embrace social-democratic political and economic values; champion post-materialist concerns for the environment, the pursuit of leisure, and human rights; and vigorously promote European integration even as they seek to enhance the competitiveness of Ger- many's capitalist economy and to strengthen Germany's national security. But in other fundamental ways, Germany sits apart from its European neighbors and poses interesting puzzles for the comparative political scientist. Germany became a unified state only in the nineteenth century, and perhaps as a result, German nationalism took on powerful and ultimately virulent and destructive force in the twentieth century at the hands of Nazi fascists. The disas- trous consequences of this hypernationalism led the Allies who defeated Ger- many to divide the nation in 1945, a division perpetuated for over three decades by the Cold War. The very successes of German industrialization, democratization after World War 11, and peaceful reunification have left the country uncertain about its future. Globalization poses new challenges to Germany's vaunted welfare state. Immi- gration has raised old questions about race and national identity; the end of the Cold War changed Germany's role as a linchpin of East-West relations; and the 305  ( Baltic Sea 25 50ml 25 SO km ' · I., '·:. 0 !:ssen ·6 ousseldorf '~ -:0 ·, :;s j Colo'.)ne°;_i ·' :P o.. Bonn :'. , BELGIUM \;~ v✓~ '.11 0 Nuremberg CZECH REPUBLIC ,, 0 Stuttgart , \J BAVARIA Danube R - FRANCE ' BADEN-WURTTEMBERG ,,_) 1....... ,. ,, ,,. ,:. ~. '\ Munich , ,,-,,,, , , , ) 0 Lake ~ Constanc'e -...--.,, expansion of the European Union eastward has weakened the central role that the country historically played in that organization. Like so many of the countries covered in this volume, Germany has recently experienced a populist move- ment that challenges the cornerstones of Germany's post-World War II political- economic model. The slow erosion of Germany's two long-dominant political parties, the growing fragmentation and polarization of the German political party system, and the retirement of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has guided Germany since 2005, suggest that Germany may be at somewhat of a political crossroads. Germany remains a major power, but its role in the post-Cold War international system seems muted, a reflection of a country still troubled by its past and uncertain what future responsibilities it must shoulder. Historical Development of the State THE ABSENCE OF A STRONG lead co the rise of Nazi fascism. Napoleon's offen- sive wiped out many of the empire's sovereign prin- CENTRAL STATE DURING THE HOLY cipalities (there were some 300 at the time) and ROMAN EMPIRE, 800-1806 compelled ochers to merge with their larger neigh- In 800, Charlemagne founded in western and cen- bors for protection. Ultimately, only Prussia to the tral Europe what came co be known as the Holy east and Austria co the south were strong enough to Roman Empire. By the middle of the ninth cen- resist Napoleon's onslaught and avoid inclusion in tury, a collection of German, Austrian, and Czech the confederation of defeated territories he formed. princes acquired nominal control of chis loosely After Napoleon's defeat in 1815, German allies constituted empire, or reich. As a feudal empire, under Prussian leadership sec up a loose confeder- it encompassed an odd assortment of hundreds of ation of some 40 sovereign mini-states chat created principalities, city-states, and ocher local political for the first time the semblance of a German state. entities with varying degrees of autonomy and legit- Over the course of the eighteenth and nine- imacy, but there was virtually no allegiance to the teenth centuries, the kingdom of Prussia in east- center. This weak confederation waxed and waned ern Germany gradually acquired the autonomy, in size and influence over the next 1,000 years, per- capacity, and legi timacy chat allowed it to emerge sisting uncil the time of Napoleon in the nineteenth as a viable core for a modern German state. A series century. Whereas comparable feudalism gave way co of generally enlightened monarchs established an centralized states in England and France, the Holy authoritarian state administered by an efficient Roman Empire remained politically fragmented. and loyal bureaucratic staff, supported by a conser- The empire took political form with the office of a vative and wealthy landed aristocracy, and defended weak emperor, which rotated among princes, and by a large and well-trained standing army. Just as the imperial Reichstag, or "Congress." important as the state's monopoly on violence was its mercancilist promotion of economic growth UNIFICATION OF THE GERMAN through the development of national infrastruc- ture, the expansion of education among its subjects, STATE, THE RISE OF PRUSSIA, AND and the enhancement of trade. Prussia established THE SECOND REICH , 1806-1918 a customs union with neighboring German states Napoleon's invasion of Germany in 1806 effec- that by 1834 included all but Austria. tively destroyed the empire, inadvertently began the By the 1860s, Prussia had forceful and capa- process of German unification, and unleashed the ble leadership, a powerful military, and a growing forces ofGerman nationalism chat would ultimately industrial economy. Impressive war victories over Historical Development of the State 307  Denmark, Austria, and ultimately France drew unfulfilled destiny and contributed ro German will- other German states into the cause and led, in ingness co bring about World War I (1914-18). But 1871 , to the establishment of a national German as the war pressed on and took a particularly heavy empire, or what came to be known as the Second toll on Germany, the social differences once again Reich. Although the Prussian king was crowned rose ro the surface. Political liberals, Catholics, emperor of all Germany, the key figure in the pro- and others began co question openly why they had cess of expansion and unification was Count Otto lent their support co an authoritarian government von Bismarck, prime minister, or chancellor, of waging war against countries that provided their Prussia. A politician, military officer, and member citizens democratic rights. Workers wondered why of the landed class, he led a so-called revolution they could fight and die but nor have an equal vote from above in which regime change came not from in parliament. As rhe war ground to its bitter con- rhe lower, disenfranchised classes, but rather from clusion, the emperor made assurances of reform, an alliance of "iron and rye"-meaning the indus- but these promises offered coo little and came coo trialists and the landed aristocracy. Through the late. German defeat in 1918, combined with urban savvy use of diplomacy, war, and political mach- uprisings, prompted the emperor to abdicate and inations. the Iron Chancellor, as Bismarck came proclaim Germany a republic. co be known, dominated German politics for two decades and brought about the first unified mod- em German state. POLITICAL POLARIZATION AND Not surprisingly, unified Germany's first national THE BREAKDOWN OF DEMOCRACY constitution established an authoritarian monarchy with only the trappings of liberal democracy. Sov- DURING THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC, ereignty remained vested in the emperor, or kaiser 1919-33 (derived from the Latin Caesar), and political power The political vacuum that followed the collapse of flowed from him. The Iron Chancellor cook no the Second Reich proved to be particularly infer- chances that the constitution's nominal democratic tile ground for the establishment of Germany's allowances would get in the way of his forced-draft first republic. No one was prepared for the sudden modernization drive. Bismarck bullied or circum- departure of the emperor, and few had considered vented the Reichstag in those few areas where it did how Germany ought co be constituted as a republic have some authority (such as the budget). He encour- with no monarchy. The seeds of cynicism and elit- aged the creation of multiple political parties and ism sown in this era would grow into the extremism then skillfully played them off one another. and fascist totalitarianism chat spelled the repub- But if democracy found infertile ground in lic's doom in less than two decades. modernizing Prussia, catch-up industrialization In the face of these and other difficulties, an proved much more successful. In 1890, Bismarck elected assembly met in the city of Weimar in 1918 was eased out of office, and Emperor Kaiser Wil- to draft a constitution. The Weimar Republic fea- helm II assumed personal control, continuing the tured a remarkably democratic constitution chat policy of rapid industrialization and imperialist offered universal suffrage for all adults (ahead expansion. By the early twentieth century, Ger- of both Britain and the United States), universal many had surpassed Britain in iron production and health insurance and pensions, and the right co become a leading industrial power. Society became employment or to unemployment compensation. more complex as both the middle and working Drafters of the constitution looked to the Brit- classes grew in size and political strength, and the ish parliamentary system as a model, retaining socialist movement captured one-third of German a bicameral parliament with a strong, popularly votes by 1912. elected lower house (Reichstag) and a weaker upper German patriotism, however, prevailed over chamber (Reichsrac) representing the states. But, these social divisions and differences. Frustra- in a measure chat ultimately doomed the republic, tions associated with Germany's efforts to expand they mistakenly saw the British monarch as the key its empire and suspicions about the intentions of co char system's stability and replaced rhe German its neighbors stoked feelings of nationalism and kaiser wirh a strong president. This choice resulted 308 GERMANY TIME LI N E Political Development 800-900 Loose confederation of German principalities forms Holy Roman Empire; later known as the First Reich. 1871 Otto von Bismarck unifies Germany; later dubbed the Second Reich. 1918 Germany defeated in World War I. 1919 Weimar Republic formed under difficult conditions. 1933 Hitler and Nazis rise to power, establishing the Third Reich. 1945 Hitler and Nazis defeated in World War II. 1945-49 Germany divided among Allies into four occupied zones. 1948 Berlin blockade and airlift take place. 194 9 Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) founded in the west and German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the east. 1952 FRG joins European Coal and Steel Community. 1955 FRG joins NATO, and GDR joins Warsaw Pact. 1957 FRG participates in founding of European Economic Community. 1961 Berlin Wall constructed. 1969 FRG Chancellor Willy Brandt launches policy of Ostpolitik. 1989 Berlin Wall falls. 1990 Germany reunified as GDR is incorporated into FRG. 1993 Germany becomes a founding member of the European Union. 2005 Angela Merkel elected to first of four terms as chancellor. in a dual executive, semi-presidential system (simi- 20 governments, often functioning as minority coa- lar co the current Russian and French systems) in litions unable co cobble together a majority of seats. which the president as head of state was di rectly From the scare, the Weimar Republic struggled and popularly elected, could nominate the chancel- with internal and external challenges that might lor as head of government, and could rule through have doomed even the most stable and resilient emergency decree under threatening circumstances. regime. 1 These challenges included the humiliation The Weimar Republic also adopted a propor- and burden of the Treaty of Versailles concluding tional representation (PR) electoral system for the World War I, which imposed on Germany billions Reichscag chat specified no minimum threshold of dollars in reparations, military demobilization, of votes and thus fostered a proliferation of par- the forfeiting of portions of German territory co ties, many of chem small and representing narrow France, and the loss of Germany's overseas colonies. interests. This meant chat no party ever won an out- Moreover, the Weimar Republic faced devastating right majority in the Reichscag, and increasingly, hyperinflation brought on by war reparations and weak and shore-lived coalitions became the norm. postwar economic cum1oil (the inflation race at Between 1919 and 1933, Germany had more than one point in 1923 was 26 billion percent) as well as Historical Development of the State 309  the consequences of the Great Depression, which organizations, including clubs and churches, under caused widespread unemployment in Germany restrictions or direct party control. Hitler employed (nearly a third of German workers were unem- state terror and a state-supervised mercantilist ployed by 1932). economy to achieve the regime's ideological goals Those opposed ro the Weimar regime were able of restoring German national power, expanding to blame all these ills on the democratic parties the German empire, and destroying those political that had authored the constitution. A threatened ideologies and ethnic groups chat threatened his middle class, defeated soldiers, and unemployed vision of Aryan supremacy. workers all proved ripe for recruitment into In hindsight, it is difficult to understand how extreme nationalist and radical communist move- a totalitarian political regime with such reprehen- ments as the Weimar Republic began to unravel. sible goals and means of achieving them could By 1930, moderate center parties favoring liberal be successful, popular, and even legitimate. For democracy had lost their majority in parliament. many Germans facing social chaos and economic Germany's Communist Party, which received only collapse, the stability, order, and national wealth 2 percent of the popular vote in the 1920 Reich- and pride Hitler promised were far more import- srag election, had by 1932 garnered 17 percent. In ant values than either freedom or equality. Hider 1928, the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, led by identified and vilified scapegoats for Germany's Adolf Hitler and running on a platform of mil- ills, resurrected the depressed economy, and united itarism and anti-Semitism, commanded less than the divided country. With extraordinary charisma, 3 percent of the vote, but by 1932 it had obtained he delivered heroically and almost miraculously 37 percent, rhe highest total for an>' party during on his promises to rearm the nation, reclaim lose the Weimar period. territories, and restore Germany's pride, power, Under conditions of increasing instability, Ger- and prestige. The Nazi propaganda machine effec- man stare capacity weakened as violence replaced tively used pageantry and propaganda co amplify legislative politics and communist and Nazi mili- Hitler's inherent magnetism. As with other total- tias fought regularly in rhe streets. Following the itarian regimes, such as Stalin's Russia and Mao's 1932 election, conservative president Paul von Hin- China, in Germany Hitler did not hesitate co use denburg and his nationalist supporters faced the terror ac the hands of an extensive security appa- difficult choice of forming a coalition government ratus to intimidate opponents and destabilize and in alliance with moderate parties against the Nazis, atomize society. In increasingly bold and aggres- declaring martial law and attempting to forcibly sive measures, he rearmed Germany (in violation of shut down the Nazis, or allying with Hitler and the the Treaty of Versailles), annexed Austria, occupied Nazis in an effort to tame them. Hindenburg chose Czechoslovakia, and in 1939 invaded Poland, pro- rhe latter option. In 1933, Hitler used this alliance voking World War II. and mounting disorder first to secure the office of But by invading Russia in 1941, Hider attempted chancellor and then ro gain passage of the Enabling one too many miracles and pushed Nazi aggression, Act. The act yielded the Reichstag's powers to the racism, and ultimately genocide beyond the bounds chancellor, effectively dissolving the constitution that the world and, increasingly, Germans them- and bringing the Weimar Republic to an end. selves would tolerate. As with Napoleon before him, Hitler's vaunted war machine proved no match for FASCIST TOTALITARIANISM UNDER the harsh Russian winter or the bravery of the Rus- sian people. But before the Nazi machine was ulti- THE THIRD REICH, 1933-45 mately defeated in 1945, it had exterminated some 6 Unfettered by constitutional restrictions, Hitler million Jews and millions of other noncombatants moved swiftly to establish the Third Reich, replac- on racial and ethnic grounds. The war killed more ing the democratic institutions of the Weimar than SO million people in Europe alone. Among Republic with those of a Nazi-led fascist totalitarian those casualties was Hitler himself, who committed regime. The Nazis imprisoned political opponents, suicide in a Berlin bunker in 1945, a week before required a loyalty oath of all civil servants, banned Russian, American, British, and French allies over- opposition political parties, and placed all social ran and occupied a defeated Germany. 310 GERMANY  FOREIGN OCCUPATION AND THE In West Germany, as in defeated Japan, Western allies and German reformers took steps to weaken DIVISION OF THE GERMAN STATE, those institutions seen as responsible for Nazi mili- 1945-49 tarism, including sweeping denazification. Reform- In 1945, Germany found itself utterly defeated. Its ers also devolved authority from the central state to industry, infrastructure, society, and polity were Germany's federal regions and strengthened dem- completely in ruins. The German state surren- ocratic institutions. The authors of the Basic Law dered sovereignty to the four Allied powers (Brit- reformed and broadened the parry system to create ain, France, Russia, and the United States), each fewer, larger parties and to encourage coalitions of which occupied a portion of the country. The in an effort to prevent the emergence of narrowly capital, Berlin, was similarly quartered. Territories defined interests and ideologies. These measures that had been seized and annexed by the Nazis were included uniting Catholics and Protestants in sepa- carved off and returned ro neighboring countries, rate but like-minded wings of the newly established and Poland annexed parts of Germany. Christian Democratic Union (CDU), healing a Although initial plans called for cooperation political divide that had persisted since the time of among the four occupying forces in moving toward the Reformation in the sixteenth century. the reestablishment of German sovereignty, the In the context of the Cold War, the United Cold War intervened, leading to a de facto divi- States sought to rebuild the West German economy sion between the Soviet-occupied eastern zone and as an engine of economic revitalization for Western the regions in the west occupied by the other three Europe. Like Japan, Germany took up this task of powers. In an obvious step toward establishing capitalist economic development with seemingly a separate West German state, the three Western miraculous success, growing rapidly to become allies established a common currency for their three one of the wealthiest countries in the world. At the zones in 1948. The Soviet Union reacted by blocking same time, strong democratic leadership brought land access from the West German sector into West stable constitutional democracy and a prosperous Berlin (located in the eastern sector) that same year. social-democratic political economy to the Federal Western allies in turn responded to this blockade Republic. Despite political competition among with the Berlin Airlift, which delivered viral supplies thriving democratic parties, general consensus to West Berlin by air for nearly a year. The Western prevailed across the political spectrum, favoring allies also ordered the West Germans to convene a domestic policies of comprehensive social wel- separate constitutional assembly, something the fare programs and a state-regulated marketplace Germans were reluctant to do for fear such a move as well as a foreign policy that promoted growing would permanently institutionalize a divided Ger- European integration and pragmatic measures to man stare. This convention led not to a constitu- ease tensions with East Germany and ultimately tion (deemed too permanent) but to the Basic Law, embrace unification. which established the Federal Republic of Ger- In the GDR, Stalinist totalitarianism replaced many (FRG)-also called West Germany-in 1949 fascist totalitarianism. Because the Soviets blamed as a democratic and demilitarized state. The Soviets the capitalist system both in Germany and more quickly responded by setting up the German Demo- globally as responsible for the Third Reich and both cratic Republic (GD R)-also called East Germany- world wars, their first step was to eliminate East in the same year. "Independence" for both German Germany's capitalist economy and replace it with a states did not, however, bring complete sovereignty; new socialist system presided over by a totalitarian each Germany remained beholden to its Cold War Communist Parry state. By the end of the 1940s, patron, exercising what one scholar has labeled the eastern portion of Germany possessed political semi-sovereignty.2 Both the United States and the and economic systems almost identical to those of Soviet Union reserved the right to control much of its Soviet mentor. With economic growth rates over their respective clients' foreign policy and even to the first two postwar decades nearly as impressive intervene in domestic matters as deemed necessary, as those of its western counterpart, East Germany and neither patron fully relinquished that authority became the economic showcase of the communist until the reunification of the German states in 1990. bloc. But like its Soviet mentor, the East German Historical Development of the State 311  socialist economy ulti- the collapse of the Iron Curtain was televised across mately could not keep the world. pace with the capitalist West. Its failure to do so f0~"J , :-·.,.~~ ~~.T:~tG.':.; REUNIFICATION OF THE GERMAN ~_;-j !!. JI was demonstrated by the grim reality of life in the STATE, 1990-PRESENT ·iJi C, i ~i1.:/'-=..s.:; r lI'~D I~ ~YI..:\'.~i-!lJ.:, the SPD-Greens government's policy of German still evolving, it opposes 1:~r~uCi0 fr1-1°K~.J 1,:,'.l'.G ~ ~.! ··:d~ ,-'"c· ,:,:"1:--:--.~,-::. ·u ·,,.. intervention in Kosovo and Afghanistan, leading the policies of privatiza- I ll