The New German party finance law

In 1992 the Federal Constitutional Court decided for the sixth time since 1949 that the German legislation concerning political finance was unconstitutional. While the first five cases were important milestones in the development of German law on the public funding of parties and campaigns, this decision was notable for its rejection of key provisions of two laws that were passed in the 1980s and for overturning the Court's previous ban on direct aid to the parties. A commission of experts was formed to study and recommend changes, and a new law was passed by the Bundestag and Bundesrat in November and December 1993. Instead of focusing on reimbursements of parties for their campaign expenditures, the new law provides for direct financing of parties based on one DM for each vote in EU, national, and Land elections and DM .50 for each D‐Mark received in party dues and donations up to DM 6,000 per person (12,000 per couple). For the first five million votes, the parties receive DM 1.30 per vote. To encourage citizen involvement, parties are not to receive more than the sum of all of their own source revenues, and the total support for all parties is not to exceed the DM 230 million (adjusted for inflation) that was given to the parties as reimbursements for campaign expenditures in the period 1989–1992. To those who have followed the controversies over German political financing since the 1950s, it will be no surprise to learn that the new legislation has provoked criticism and sparked plans to bring the new law before the Federal Constitutional Court.     

The PDS in the new German party system

The success of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) cannot be explained solely with a rising tide of GDR nostalgia and/or with the efficiency of PDS members as service providers and advocates at the grass‐roots level. We stress the importance of the PDS as the main political representative of a specific socio‐economic and cultural milie in the former GDR. Furthermore, the article traces the evolution of the PDS from a populist voice of protest of the losers of unification to the beginnings of a new political party. As such it defines its identity more as a radical left‐wing party with strong social libertarian characteristics than a traditional socialist party. The party programme and the electorate of the PDS display remarkable similarities to the fundamentalist wing of the West German Greens in the 1980s, although differences as to the origins of the left‐libertarian ideas remain important. While the PDS seems to have strengthened the significance of the new politics agenda in post‐unification Germany, it is still too early to conclude whether this agenda is firmly rooted in the party or whether it is simply a vehicle to electoral success.     

The new ethics of modern public service

Books reviewed:
Chapman, R. (ed.), Ethics in Public Service
Lawton, A., Ethical Management for the Public Services
Gowthorpe, C. and Blake, J. (eds), Ethical Issues in Accounting     

Remaking the public through the square: invention of the new national cosmology in Turkey

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the formation of authoritarian populism in Turkey by analysing mass mobilization and its repercussions in the symbolic and imaginary realms as authoritarian right-wing populisms have gained global popularity. It scrutinises the AKP government’s mobilization of the masses in the so-called ‘democracy watches’ after the coup attempt on 15 July 2016. During the demonstrations that took place in various locations in Istanbul, authors carried out participant observation fieldwork and field interviews. The paper concludes that democracy watches constitute a significant means of constructing and consolidating a new authoritarian regime, thereby endowing this consolidation process with a popular legitimacy.     

The Effects of German Unification on the Federal Chancellor's Decision-Making

The purchase of Germany's Mannesmann AG by Britain's telecommunications holding company Vodafone in spring 2000 represented the first major cross-border hostile takeover in German corporate history. As spectacle, the story surrounding the fall of one of Germany's grandest industrial giants lays bare the underlying themes shaping the country's national discourse over how to build a new national consensus on the function of economic activity for the state, for society, and for the German citizen. As such, the Mannesmann-Vodafone saga contains a clear caesura between the Old and the New Economy in Germany. Of course the question remains which values and institutions do the Germans want to carry over from the old world into the new. And there the line between past and present becomes distinctly less discernible.     

The impact of unification on German industrial relations

This paper analyses the stability of the German collective bargaining system by utilising a framework based on the concept of bargaining inclusiveness and exclusiveness. Examining collective bargaining developments in the metalworking industry, the adaptability of the west German bargaining system in the 1970s and 1980s is contrasted with the problems experienced in the new Lander, where institutional transfer and economic collapse, by substantially weakening IG Metall at establishment level and presenting employers with the opportunity to exit from the multi‐employer bargaining system, limited the prospects for organised decentralisation. The result has been the undermining of the inclusive German bargaining system in the east, as measured by collective bargaining coverage, which by creating labour market dualism, also threatens the stability of collective bargaining across Germany.     

The German Model Revisited: From Schmidt to Schroder

This article examines the main changes in the German model from the government of the previous Social Democratic Chancellor Helmut Schmidt to that of Gerhard Schroder. It stresses the tensions and conflicts between its two faces - ordo-liberalism and 'managed' capitalism - and its potential to shift its centre of gravity without sacrificing its underlying nature. The key element of accommodation rests on a monetarist co-ordination of collective bargaining, an element that has been put in question by EMU. The Schroder government epitomizes an approach of modernisation by stealth that is well adapted to the contours of the German model. The conclusion points to the attempts to give a technocratic basis of legitimacy to the German model (most recently by the methodology of benchmarking) and seeks to offer a preliminary sketch of a theory of anchoring to explain how well consolidated is the German model. In addition to identifying slipping and weakening anchors, the conclusion emphasises the importance of two key anchors: the consistency of the German model with corporate strategy and with a chancellorship leadership adapted to the consensus principle which remains important in the operation of the political system. In the process the article offers reflections on the leadership role and style of Chancellor Schroder.     

The Europeanisation of the German Bundestag: Institutional change and informal adaptation

At first glance, the Europeanisation of the German Bundestag seems quite straightforward: in reaction to the process of European integration the Bundestag acquired a set of comparatively strong participation and scrutiny rights in EU politics. It therefore seems rather astonishing that German members of parliament make only very little use of these rights. Different explanations have been put forward in the literature, such as the complicated decision-making system of the EU and the government's gate-keeper position within it, institutional flaws of the German scrutiny system as well as the overall consensus on European integration and the low electoral salience of EU issues. The paper contributes to this discussion in two respects: On the one hand, it offers an additional explanation for the infrequent use of formal instruments. The main argument is that the formal instruments of scrutiny in EU affairs are incompatible with both the overall logic of a parliamentary system as well as the challenges of policy-making in the EU multilevel system. On the other hand, the paper argues that the exclusive focus on the use of formal parliamentary scrutiny rights leads us to overlook more informal means of parliamentary influence and therefore to underestimate the involvement of German parliamentarians in EU affairs. Thus, in order to fully assess processes of parliamentary Europeanisation, we need to take forms of informal or strategic Europeanisation into account.     

German policy towards the European union: The effects of historical memory

Reflection on the past and its implications shaped German policy towards the European Union during the early 1990s. Helmut Kohl's post‐reunification foreign policy rhetoric reveals two prominent historical themes: that European integration is a ‘question of war and peace’, and that German unity and European unity represent ‘two sides of the same coin’. In the post‐Cold War context, both themes served to orient and legitimate his European policy. They informed Kohl's strong support for the realisation of the Maastricht Treaty. And they were central to his efforts to maintain domestic political support for deeper integration.     

The grundgesetz after 50 years: Analysing changes in the German constitution

Fifty years after its original drafting, the German constitution has seen its text amended many times. Indeed, among OECD countries, the Grundgesetz has one of the highest rates of constitutional change. This article analyses these changes. It does so in a quantitative manner in its first section, before proceeding to ask how the numerous changes can be explained. Three approaches from the legal and political science literature are presented: one emphasising historical‐structural factors, one analysing changes as constitutional revisionism, and an institutional approach which focuses on the conditions for constitutional amendment. The strengths and weaknesses of each approach are then compared and contrasted, before the article concludes with an assessment of the characteristics of German constitutional policy.     

German Idiosyncracies: Revisiting the finanzausgleich debate

Finanzausgleich. Die Verteilung der Aufgaben, Ausgaben und Einnahmen im Recht der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Europäischen Union. By ULRICH HÄDE. Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1996, pp.619, DM 218.

Rechtliche und finanzwissenschaftliche Probleme der Neuordnung der Finanzbeziehungen von Bund und Ldndern im vereinten Deutschland. By KLAUS‐DIRK HENKE and GUNNER FOLKE SCHUPPERT. 1. Aufl., Baden‐Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 1993, pp.119, DM 41.

Der bundesstaatliche Finanzausgleich in Deutschland. Geschichtliche und staatsrechtliche Grundlagen. By JÜRGEN W HIDIEN, 1 Aufl., Baden‐Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 1999, pp.885, DM 198.

Die Verteilung der Umsatzsteuer zwischen Bund und Ldndern. By JÜRGEN W. HIDIEN. 1. Aufl., Baden‐Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 1998, pp.463, DM 98.

Handbuch Länderfinanzaugleich. By JÜRGEN W HIDIEN. 1. Aufl., Baden‐Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft 1999, pp.710, DM 178.

Finanzverfassung und Föderalismus in Deutschland und der Schweiz. By ALEXANDER JÖRG, 1. Aufl., Baden‐Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft 1998, pp.336, DM 88.

Bundesstaatliche Finanzordnung. Grundlagen, Bestand, Reform. By IRENE KESPER. 1. Aufl., Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft Baden‐Baden 1998, pp.430, DM 98.

Der Finanzausgleich zwischen Bund und Landern. By Stefan Korioth. Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1997, pp.733, DM 228.

Grundlagen des Finanzverfassungsrechts (Sonderausgabe des Bonner Kommentars zum Grundgesetz ‐ Vorbemerkung zu Art. 104a bis 115 GG). By KLAUS VOGEL and CHRISTIAN WALDHOFF 1. Aufl., C.F. Müller Verlag, Hüthig GmbH Heidelberg 1999, pp.617, DM 178.     

The Partnership between the Czech and German Greens

The paper (1) reviews the value differences between west and east Germany after unification and their development to date, and (2) explains the fact that between 1990 and 1995 east and west Germany do not approach each other in terms of values. (1) Of the four values considered, equality is more strongly endorsed in west Germany, whilst achievement is more strongly endorsed in the east. Co‐determination finds more support in west Germany. Acceptancy of institutions differs in its two domains in opposite directions: Religiosity is more strongly supported in west Germany, morality in east Germany. Across all four values, differences between both parts of the country mostly remain constant or even grow between 1990 and 1995. (2) As the former German Democratic Republic relied heavily on ‘work’ as an integrative ideology, east Germans should still be able to create a feeling of togetherness today based on the work product they established under the GDR. On the other hand, as this work is no longer linked to an unjust and ineffective political and economic system, it retrospectively gains in value on the one hand. Yet, as it is inevitably poorly assessed in the economic reconstruction of east Germany, it continually loses its value on the other hand. As unification has set off these contradicting developments, east Germans attribute them to west Germany; hence their growing distance from west German values.     

Between ambitions and financial constraints: The reform of the German armed forces

After the end of the Cold War and unification, Germany's role in the international system underwent a fundamental change. The so-called Berlin Republic developed a new strategic culture, relaxed its stance on the use of force and put its interests forth in a more self-confident way. These developments mark an essential change and renunciation of many norms and principles, which dominated German security policy until the end of the Cold War. Hence, the question arises if the concept of Germany as a ‘civilian power’ is still valid. The adaptation to the new security environment and the development of new ambitions is reflected in a far-reaching reform of the German armed forces. As an instrument of German foreign policy, the foremost task of the Bundeswehr is no longer territorial defence, but international conflict prevention and crisis management. Bundeswehr reform, however, is not matched by sufficient financial means, and so remains imperfect and problematic.     

欧债危机:一个德国视角的评估

从德国的视角看,欧债危机的根本原因在于PIIGS国家("欧猪国家")在享受超出自身收入水平的生活方式上走得太远,导致其政府的持续预算赤字。一位著名的美国经济学家持不同见解,他认为成员国的竞争力差异以及加入共同货币区导致的政策工具的丧失使得欧元已经失败。德国政府相信有两个政策工具可以解决危机:第一,制定强制所有成员国采取预算紧缩的财政协议;第二,创建一个基金用以救助受到破产威胁的成员国政府。包括发行欧元区共同债券和赋予欧洲中央银行以最后贷款人地位在内的一系列政策措施都被德国政府拒绝了。德国政府强烈反对将欧元区转化为转移支付联盟。而由德国政府提出的政策措施也都归于失败,因为预算紧缩政策导致了"欧猪国家"的经济负增长,进而加大了其减少公债的难度。在德国政府看来,为保证"欧猪国家"不放松降低财政赤字的努力,继续保持金融市场上的压力是必要的。笔者认为,除非德国政府采取针对经济弱国的更加合作的态度,否则欧元区将极有可能归于终结。     

Flying into unexpected turbulence: The German EU presidency in the environmental field

Many observers expected that the new Red‐Green coalition government would have an easy ride in the Environmental Council during its European Union (EU) presidency in early 1999. However, this was not the case, mainly due to Chancellor Schröder's decision to block the adoption of the so‐called end‐of‐life vehicles directive. It is argued that inexperience and lack of political judgement on EU matters have dented Germany's pro‐integrationist image and perception as an environmental leader state. However, it is also shown that the German presidency was nevertheless highly successful in terms of the number of agreements achieved.     

Communication networks of German legislators: The case of Bavaria

This article analyses the communication network of German legislators with society. Using the ‘linkage approach’ to the study of political representation, and based on interviews and postal questionnaires administered to parliamentarians of the German state of Bavaria, the article discusses the personal linkages of legislators, their most important partners, their sources of information and political impulses, and their time budget devoted to ‘linkage activities’.