Age,Period and Cohort Effects in the Decline of Party Identification in Germany: An Analysis of a Two Decade Panel Study in Germany (1992–2009)

Party identification traditionally is seen as an important linkage mechanism, connecting voters to the party system. Previous analyses have suggested that the level of party identity is in decline in Germany, and this article first expands previous observations with more recent data. These suggest that the erosion of party identity continues up to the present time. An age–period–cohort analysis of the panel data of the SOEP panel suggests that period effects are significantly negative. Furthermore, it can be observed that throughout the 1992–2009 observation period, education level and political interest have become more important determinants of party identity. Contrary to some of the literature, therefore, it can be shown that the loss of party identity is concentrated among groups with lower levels of political sophistication, indicating that the socio-economic profile of the group with a sense of party identification has become more distinct compared to the population as a whole. In the discussion, we investigate the theoretical and democratic consequences of this trend.     

Is There a Regional Cleavage in Germany's Party System? Unequal Representation and Ideological Congruence in Germany 1980–2013

Despite a growing convergence in the attitudes and behaviours of voters in the unified Germany, research shows that eastern and western German voters continue to differ over general ideological issues. How well does the party system in the unified Germany represent this ideological diversity? To answer this question, this paper analyses the extent to which (1) parties-in-electorates, (2) parties-in-parliament and (3) parties-in-government agree ideologically with voters from both regions between 1980 and 2013. Hypothetically, a lop-sided representation pattern, where the ideological location of parties converges primarily with those of western voters, suggests that existing ideological differences become institutionalised. Contrary to this scenario, we find that the German party system effectively articulates the ideological preferences of western and eastern voters. The same applies to parliaments and governments where the election outcome rather than any institutional bias affects the distance of parties to voters in the East and the West.     

Party Competition and Government Formation in Germany: Business as Usual or New Patterns?

The process of coalition formation following the 2017 Bundestag election was the most difficult in German post-war history. For the first time, Germany saw negotiations fail, a minority government being discussed as a real possibility, and the federal president involved as formateur in coalition politics. The aim of this contribution is to explain why government formation was so intricate after the 2017 election. To this end, we trace patterns of party politics and the development of the German party system since 2013. We then study general patterns of government formation at the regional and national levels since the 1990s and evaluate whether these have changed with the advent of the right-wing populist party, Alternative for Germany. Our analysis of the 2017–2018 government formation is based on a novel expert survey of the policy profiles of German parties on various issue dimensions, conducted in 2017. The results show that the continuation of the incumbent coalition government of Christian and Social Democrats was the most likely outcome, and that the Social Democrats were indeed able to enforce a surpassing share of their policy positions in the final negotiation rounds.     

From the national state to the rational state and back? An exercise in understanding politics and identity in Germany in the twentieth century

The end of the East‐West conflict and the unification of Germany in 1990 have dramatically altered the geopolitical shape of Europe. Speculations abound, in particular as regards Germany: have the spectres of German nationalism been banished for good? Is the new Berlin Republic different from the Bonn Republic? This article traces the national idea in Germany since the early nineteenth century and argues that the Bonn years have been crucial in the development of a civic culture which transcends the concept of a nation dominant in Germany from 1871 to 1945. Rather than marking a return of traditional nationalist concepts, the unification of Germany may well open the way for a lasting reorientation towards a civic concept of national identity in Germany.     

German Parliamentary Party Groups in Europeanised Policymaking: Awakening from the Sleep? Institutions and Heuristics as MPs’ Resources

As a contribution to the ‘de-parliamentarisation’ debate, this article discusses the Europeanisation of the Bundestag by focusing on parliamentary party groups and their policy experts. In the German ‘working parliament’, these units are focal points for coordinating policymaking. By adding the explanatory power of ‘belief systems’ and, more generally, of ‘heuristics’ to theories of new institutionalism, this explanatory study reveals that although new institutionalism frameworks have served as rather good guidelines for explaining why German MPs have backed off scrutinising the government and co-governing in EU policymaking, they can be further improved by explicitly integrating elements of cognitive theory. The study empirically draws on elite interviews with MPs and their staff. These interviews offer insights into heuristics which serve to diminish information overload and which help MPs to cope with trade-offs and conflicts between EU issues and programmatic positions that point back to national party affiliations.     

When Do Numbers Count? The Differential Impact of the PISA Rating and Ranking on Education Policy in Germany and the US

Why do international comparisons have an impact on some countries while other countries do not respond? This article examines the power of international ratings and rankings (R&R) using the OECD's PISA study and its differential impact on education policymaking as a case study. It argues that international R&R have an impact when two conditions are simultaneously fulfilled: the evaluated topic is framed as crucial in the national discourse, and a substantial gap between national self-perception and the empirical results can be observed. After assessing the media impact of PISA on 21 OECD countries, the theoretical argument is illustrated by an evaluation of the differing reactions of two similarly poorly performing countries: Germany and the US. While the German system of secondary education was strongly affected by the international comparison, beginning with the first PISA study in 2000, and underwent comprehensive changes, the US first responded noticeably in the public and the political discourse only in 2010 to its below-average ranking.     

‘The Children of the State’? How Palestinians from the Seven Villages Negotiate Sect,Party and State in Lebanon

In Lebanon, the fear of taw?īn makes nationalization of Palestinian refugees an anathema. Yet several groups of Palestinians have received Lebanese citizenship since 1948, most (in)famously those from the ‘seven villages’, a chain of Shi‘i villages on Lebanon's southern border that was incorporated into Palestine in 1923. The trajectory of their nationalization is usually presented as a straightforward consequence of top-down Lebanese electoral politics. This article augments this dominant perspective through a case study of the community from the village of Salha, now in Israel, that currently lives in Shabriha, a small town near the city of Tyre in South Lebanon. Adopting the ‘negotiated statehood’ framework, the article offers an agency-oriented, bottom-up perspective on the community's gaining of citizenship and shows how the people from Salha have acquired citizenship not merely to gain access to, but also to ensure a degree of independence from, the Lebanese state and political parties.     

What's Right about the Left–Right Dimension? The Causes and the Consequences of Ideological Inconsistency on Economic Issues in Germany

There is growing evidence that policy preferences of citizens on economic issues do not follow an ideological left–right pattern; that is, from the perspective of political science theory, citizens' economic policy preferences are ideologically inconsistent. This article examines this phenomenon for the German case. It shows that a large share of German citizens have ideologically inconsistent views on economic issues. The article further investigates the causes of this ideological inconsistency and its consequences for democratic representation: citizens with inconsistent views tend to be more dissatisfied with their own societal position and tend to have less political knowledge. The article further shows that citizens with ideologically inconsistent views are less satisfied with democracy and less likely to vote in elections, because they cannot find adequate representation among the established parties.     

No Way to Escape Imbalances in the Eurozone? Three Sources for Germany’s Export Dependency: Industrial Relations,Social Insurance and Fiscal Federalism

Over the last two decades, the German political economy has increasingly relied on export specialisation as a strategy for economic recovery. This export-led development strategy turned out to be a mixed blessing. While, on the one hand, specialisation in high-quality manufactured goods has preserved Germany’s competitive edge vis-à-vis many other industrialised countries, it has, on the other hand, led to an increasing dependency on exports as the engine for growth. There has been no equally strong evolution of a domestic service economy beyond manufacturing-related services. The issue of export dependency becomes increasingly important in light of the financial crisis and global imbalances, vis-à-vis Greece and the Eurozone but also globally. Weak aggregate demand depresses both domestic employment and endangers the still fragile construction of the Eurozone. The paper argues that Germany finds itself in an export-dependency trap due to imbalances between domestic services and export-driven manufacturing. It analyses three sources for the over-reliance on export-oriented manufacturing and weak employment in domestic services: firstly, the industrial relations system, secondly, the social insurance financing of the welfare state and thirdly, fiscal federalism. All three are fundamental pillars of the German political economy and locked into political coalitions that are not easily changed.     

Eugenics and the modern woman on trial in Spain: from the Primer curso eugénico (1928) to the trial of Aurora Rodríguez Carballeira (1934)

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Spanish supporters of eugenics encountered unprecedented opportunities to propagate their ideas and influence public discourse. This article argues that, following the collapse of the dictatorship of General Miguel Primo de Rivera in 1930, images of modern femininity were used to promote eugenic ideas to new audiences and the mujer moderna (modern woman) imagined as a key consumer of the modernist ideology of race regeneration. The association of Galtonian doctrine with new models of modern femininity affected an increase in the popularity of eugenics, evident in records of the extraordinary professional advancement of adolescent propagandist for eugenic reform, Hildegart (1914–33). Nevertheless, the capacity of Spanish eugenicists to propagate their ideas and shape social reform remained limited due to lingering anxieties about the dangers of popularising scientific knowledge about sex and reproduction among those who might be classified as “unprepared” on the basis of their age and gender.