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The Problem of Morality and Power in the Politics of West Germany *

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Kenneth Dyson
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Extract

ELECTIONS HAVE ALWAYS CONSTITUTED A PARTICULARLY sharp rupture to the general character of the West German political process, which depends heavily on accommodation by elite negotiation. In the arenas of parliamentary and executive politics a pervasive style of amicable agreement exists at elite levels, and the political value of Sachlichkeit (objectivity) remains important. Hence, in the legislative period 1976–80 over 90 per cent of legislation passed the Bundestag unanimously. An inquisitorial, as opposed to adversary, style of politics plays an important role in the work of the powerful committees of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, the two legislative chambers in Bonn. Accordingly, and by contrast, elections tend to take on a remarkably dramatic character, even if, as in 1980, there appears to be little polarization of opinion about concrete issues of policy. British politics is, of course, characterized by the influence of the arena of electoral politics, of the ‘cut-and-thrust’ of competitive adversary politics, on other arenas of politics.

Type
Original Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , 01 April 1981 , pp. 131 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1981

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References

1 Crick, B., The Reform of Parliament, London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1964.Google Scholar

2 The Christian Democrat electoral slogan in the 1960s was Sicher ist Sicher.

3 The issue of worker participation in the iron and steel industry erupted just before the election as a consequence of proposed changes in the structure of the giant Mannesmann concern. Relations between the coalition parties, the SPD and the FDP, were strained. The SPD sought legal guarantees for worker participation; the FDP preferred to avoid interference.

4 On this tradition of thought about public authority and its implications see Dyson, K. H. F., The State Tradition in Western Europe, Oxford, Martin Robertson, 1980.Google Scholar

5 The distinction between Bürger and Bourgeois is explored in Smend, R., Statsrechtliche Abhandlungen, Berlin, Duncker & Humblot, 1955.Google Scholar

6 He was chairman of the Bavarian CSU, a party that, to a greater degree than its sister party, the CDU, emphasized the need for political dramatization in order to mobilize opinion and to counteract the danger of electoral apathy.

7 Stern, No. 36, 28 August 1980, pp. 50–2.

8 Spiegel, 13 October 1980, p. 26.

9 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24 October 1980.

10 The quotes which are used in this paragraph are summarized in Die Zeit, No. 41, 3 October 1980, p. 2.

11 The CDU/CSU had a majority in the Bundesrat; and there was a CDU Federal President (Karl Carstens) and a CDU president of the Federal Constitutional Court (Ernst Benda).

12 Studies of the political style of Schmidt and Strauss are plentiful but characterized on the whole by superficial idolatry and plain polemics. However, for a useful study of Schmidt’s political style see Glotz, P., Die Innenuusstattung der Macht. Politisches Tagebuch 1976–1978, Munich, Steinhausen, 1980.Google Scholar

13 On Schmidt and the management of economic policy see Dyson, K., ‘The Politics of Economic Management in West Germany’, West European Politics, Spring 1981 Google Scholar. Reprinted in Paterson, W. (ed.), Stability and Change in West Germany, London, Frank Cass, 1981.Google Scholar

14 Also in Die Zeit, 3 October 1980.

15 Lange, G., ‘Untersuchung zum Sprach‐ und Sprechstil von Helmut Schmidt’, Muttersprache 85, 1975, pp. 11–24.Google Scholar

16 A new documentation of Strauss’s affairs and scandals (like HS 30, Starfighter, FIBAG and Spiegel) and of his contacts with right‐wing extremists abroad was provided by Engelmann, B., Das Neue Schwarzbuch Franz Josef Strauss, Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 1980.Google Scholar

17 The Staatsrechtler Rudolf Smend (see note 5) was an important influence on Protestant political thought. His contribution is assesssed in K. Dyson, The State Tradition in Western Europe.

18 For a discussion of the German conception of party see Dyson, K., Party, State, and Bureaucracy in West Germany, Beverly Hills, Sage, 1977.Google Scholar