Bürger und Demokratie im vereinigten Deutschland

Since the early 1990s, the future development of the political culture of unified Germany was a matter of debate. According to some scholars, a fit between political structure and political culture is a necessary condition of a well performing and stable democracy. At the same time it was doubted, whether such a configuration would develop in Germany in the near future. Generalized support of a democratic regime and of the particular type of democracy institutionalized in the nation under observation are regarded as particularly relevant elements of a democratic political culture. Regarding the distribution and development of these attitudes, there are no indications of an increasing congruence between political structure and political culture in unified Germany. In the Eastern part of the country, the democratic regime in general, but even more the German variant of democracy is facing considerable scepticism. The particularly strong scepticism of the East Germans towards the form of democracy institutionalized in Germany particularly rooted in a distant attitude to democracy as a type of political regime. Other relevant factors are dissatisfaction with the performance of democracy in Germany, a negative view of the responsiveness of political leaders, a persisting support of socialism and a negative perception of the prevailing economic conditions.     

Vertrauen in Eliten und die politische Unterstützung der Demokratie

In modern polyarchies national elites are facing tremendous challenges caused by societal changes as well as the impact of internationalization. At the same time, conditions for producing political legitimacy have altered fundamentally. Against this background, the article devises an analytical category, termed “trust in elites”. In a first step, the paper provides an explanation for the theoretical relevance of the category’s vertical dimension, referring to transdisciplinary research on “trust” and “confidence” as well as to the concept of political support presented by David Easton. In a second step, suggestions on how the vertical dimension of “trust in elites” may be measured empirically are offered.     

Die Dividende der Demokratie: Politische Herrschaft und gesamtwirtschaftliche Produktivität

In social sciences exists a broad consensus about the impact of political institutions on economic development. There is dissent, however, about the influence of democratic order on economic performance. Based on arguments from economic institutionalism, this paper argues that democracy has a significant and positive impact on productivity growth. In contrast to autocratic order, democratic systems can be interpreted as a competition-friendly regulation of a natural monopoly, which results in comparatively high productivity gains. This hypothesis is tested for a sample of 81 countries for the 1975–2000 period. Different regression models provide empirical support for the assumption that increasing levels of democracy produce a productivity dividend.     

Parteien und Bürgermeister in der Repräsentativen Demokratie. Kommunale Konkordanz- und Konkurrenzdemokratie im Vergleich

Analogous to Lehmbruch’s model, two ideal types of representative democracy may also be distinguished in respect of local politics. Proportional democracy is characterised by a low degree of party politisation of both parish councils and mayors. This holds for the nomination period, on the hustings, for the election and during government, and induces the dominance of the mayor in all periods. Local competitive democracy, however, may be described in terms of a less influential mayor in all phases and a high degree of party politisation. There is empirical evidence that patterns of proportional democracy prevail in Baden-Wuerttemberg, whereas North Rhine-Westphalian communities are dominated by actors’ constellations similar to the competitive democracy model. These differences can be explained by diverging communal laws, a lower degree of party organisation in Baden-Wuerttemberg, and a lower average population size in the southern communities. Legal conditions, the degree of party organisation and population size as independent variables can be subsumed into an index of proportional democracy, which may be helpful for a preliminary indexing of communities in other German Laender states.     

Alexis de Tocqueville: Die „Sitten“ und die Exportfähigkeit der Demokratie

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Demokratie, Autokratie und die regulative Gestaltung der Außenwirtschaftsbeziehungen in Entwicklungsländern

This paper investigates into the political determinants of trade policy regulation in developing countries. When choosing between the trade policy instruments tariffs and quota governments consider the effects of these policies on their political support from interest groups and voters. It is argued that quantitative restrictions become increasingly less attractive as a country democratizes. Instead, motives of revenue generation gain importance. Therefore, the likelihood of democratic governments choosing quota is smaller than for their autocratic counterparts. Empirical tests based on a sample of 75 developing countries for the years 1979–1998 support the hypothesis.     

Direkte Demokratie in Europa: Erträge,Probleme und Perspektiven der vergleichenden Forschung

In recent years, the number of publications investigating national referenda in Europe on both a theoretical and a comparative basis has considerably grown. The review essay takes stock of this literature, focusing on three questions: What are the main reasons for introducing and using direct-democratic institutions? How can the results of referenda and initiatives be explained? What effects do they have on parliamentary democracy? The critical review sheds light on important achievements as well as persistent gaps and problems of the existing scholarship.     

Herrschaft des Gesetzes, Freiheit, Demokratie

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Die Messbarkeit von Demokratie: Zur Relevanz des Kontexts

The paper starts from three assumptions: (1) ‘democracy’ can take various institutional and procedural shapes which may all be of equal ‘democratic value’; (2) that is why, for analytical reasons, ‘democratic quality’ must be separated from the other features of the political system; (3) in measuring ‘democratic quality’ the respective (societal, institutional) context must be taken into account. Central in this concept is a ‘puristic’ definition of democracy concentrating on its object. Democracy thus is to be defined as the prolongation of individual self-determination into the realm of collective decicision-making. Four relevant context factors are identified: two relating to the structure of society — (1) degree of homogeneity and (2) type and extent of dominance structures —, and two relating to the structure of the decision-making system itself — (3) degree of complexity and (4) degree of institutionalisation / formalization. These context variables call for different forms of participation and are of different influence on its effectiveness. The basic idea of the contextualized model is as follows: We identify a position of a given political system with respect to each of the four context variables. Thus we can identify the ‘demand’, i.e. a specific composition of opportunity structures, which then is to be confronted to the ‘supply’, i.e. the existing opportunity structures and their effectiveness. As a result we should be able to make out varying sizes of ‘democratic deficits’ in different political systems — and thus to identify different levels of democratic quality (for an illustration see the Appendix).     

Die „Friedensdividende“ der Globalisierung: Außenwirtschaftliche Öffnung und innenpolitische Stabilität in den Entwicklungsländern

One of the disputed consequences of global economic integration is the possible effect that foreign economic liberalization exerts on social cohesion. Proponents of commercial liberalism expect a stabilization, while globalization critics are much more sceptical. They assume, at least in the short run, destabilizing effects. We examine in this paper the contradictory claims for the developing world. “The rush to free trade”, to use Rodrik’s famous metaphor, has been particularly pronounced in this group of countries. Our results refute, based on different indicators, the fear that growing economic interdependence undermines the all too often fragile developing countries. The positive effect of economic openness is, however, only limited.     

Gegen alle Theorie? Die Konsolidierung der Demokratie in Ostmitteleuropa

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<Emphasis Type="Italic">Viola Neu:</Emphasis> Das Janusgesicht der PDS. Wähler zwischen Demokratie und Extremismus (Extremismus &; Demokratie,Bd. 9)

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