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The Development of Public Support for Parliament in Germany, 1951–59

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Extract

Systems theorists introduced the concept of ‘support’ to permit explanations of political stability and instability. Yet most attempts to verify the existence of a relationship between support and stability empirically have dealt with wellestablished political systems, and have relied on data collected at one point in time. This paper reports an initial effort to examine the growth of support for a new political regime using a series of sample surveys providing data on changes in the level of support over time.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

1 Almond, Gabriel A. and Verba, Sidney, The Civic Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), p. 496.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Verba, Sidney, ‘Germany: The Remaking of Political Culture’, in Pye, Lucian and Verba, Sidney, eds., Political Culture and Political Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), p. 134.Google Scholar

3 Noelle, Elisabeth and Neumann, Erich Peter, The Germans; Public Opinion Polls, 1947–1966 (Allensbach:Verlag für Demoskopie, 1967), pp. 196, 203, 395.Google Scholar

4 Verba, , ‘Germany: The Remaking of Political Culture’, pp. 146–7.Google Scholar

5 In the election forecasts of 1957, 1961, 1965, and 1969, the average difference between the Institute's data and the official results was one per cent; the highest difference was 1.9 per cent.

6 ‘Wenn man das einmal ganz von der nützlichen Seite betrachtet: Brauchen wir in Bonn eigentlich ein Parlament und lauter Abgeordnete, oder ginge es auch ohne?’

7 Verba, , ‘Germany: The Remaking of Political Culture’, p. 137.Google Scholar

8 ‘Wieviel Abgeordnete gibt es Ihrer Schätzung nach im Bundestag in Bonn?’ (FALLS nicht bekannt: ‘Nur ungefähr geschätzt, was Sie sich vorstellen?’) ‘Könnte man Ihrer Ansicht nach auch mit fünfzig Abgeordneten auskommen?’

9 Easton, David, A Systems Analysis of Political Life (New York: John Wiley, 1965), pp. 273, 274.Google Scholar

10 Boynton, G. R., Patterson, S. C., and Wahlke, John C., ‘Dimensions of Support in Legislative Systems,’ in Kornberg, Allan, ed., Legislatures in Comparative Perspective (New York: McKay, 1973), Chap. 12.Google Scholar

11 We would like to thank William H. Klink of the Department of Physics of the University of Iowa for his assistance in working out this formula.