Democratization in Germany: A reappraisal

Comparative Politics

Volumn 33, Issue 4, 2001, Pages 379-400

  Bernhard, Michael ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0040956822     PISSN: 00104159     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/422440     Document Type: Review

References (62)

1. Wolfgang J. Mommsen, "Die Vergangenheit, die nicht vergehen will," in Nation and Geschichte: Über die Deutschen und die deutsche Frage (Munich: Piper, 1990); Dirk Verheyen, The German Question (Boulder: Westview 1991), p. 30.
2. Richard L. Merritt, Democracy Imposed: U.S. Occupation Policy and the German Public, 1945-1949 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995); John D. Montgomery, Forced to Be Free: The Artificial Revolution in Germany and Japan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957).
3. Richard L. Merritt, Democracy Imposed: U.S. Occupation Policy and the German Public, 1945-1949 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995); John D. Montgomery, Forced to Be Free: The Artificial Revolution in Germany and Japan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957).
4. Leonard Krieger, "The Potential for Democratization in Occupied Germany: A Problem in Historical Projection," Public Policy, 17 (1968), 56-57.
5. Peter Merkl, "Allied Strategies of Effecting Political Change and Their Reception in Occupied Germany," Public Policy, 17 (1968), 102-3.
6. Michael Fichter, "Non-State Organizations and the Problems of Redemocratization," in John H. Herz, ed., From Dictatorship to Democracy (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1982); Montgomery, pp. 4-5; John H. Herz, "Denazification and Related Policies," in Herz, ed.
7. Michael Fichter, "Non-State Organizations and the Problems of Redemocratization," in John H. Herz, ed., From Dictatorship to Democracy (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1982); Montgomery, pp. 4-5; John H. Herz, "Denazification and Related Policies," in Herz, ed.
8. Juan Linz, "The Transition to Democracy," The Washington Quarterly, 13 (1990), 148. Also see Samuel B. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), p. 40; and Alfred Stepan, "Paths toward Redemocratization: Theoretical and Comparative Considerations," in Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp. 71-72.
9. Juan Linz, "The Transition to Democracy," The Washington Quarterly, 13 (1990), 148. Also see Samuel B. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), p. 40; and Alfred Stepan, "Paths toward Redemocratization: Theoretical and Comparative Considerations," in Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp. 71-72.
10. Juan Linz, "The Transition to Democracy," The Washington Quarterly, 13 (1990), 148. Also see Samuel B. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), p. 40; and Alfred Stepan, "Paths toward Redemocratization: Theoretical and Comparative Considerations," in Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp. 71-72.
11. Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963).
12. Cited in David P. Conradt, "Changing German Political Culture," in Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, eds., The Civic Culture Revisited (Boston: Little Brown, 1980), p. 219.
13. Ralf Dahrendorf, Society and Democracy in Germany (Garden City: Doubleday, 1965), chs. 19, 21.
14. Sidney Verba, "Germany: The Remaking of a Political Culture," in Lucian Pye and Sidney Verba, eds., Political Culture and Political Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), pp. 133, 146, 168-69.
15. Conradt, pp. 223-24.
16. Conradt, pp. 263-65; Russell J. Dalton, "A Changing Social Consciousness," in Peter H. Merkl, ed., The Federal Republic at Forty (New York: New York University Press, 1989), p. 57.
17. Conradt, pp. 263-65; Russell J. Dalton, "A Changing Social Consciousness," in Peter H. Merkl, ed., The Federal Republic at Forty (New York: New York University Press, 1989), p. 57.
18. Dalton, p. 69.
19. Karlheinz Niclauss, "Political Reconstruction at Bonn," in Herz, ed.; John Ford Golay, The Founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958); Peter H. Merkl, The Origins of the West German Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1963); and Ulrike Liebert, Modelle demokratischer Konsolidierung: Parlamente und organisierte Interessen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Italien and Spanien (1948-1990) (Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1995).
20. Karlheinz Niclauss, "Political Reconstruction at Bonn," in Herz, ed.; John Ford Golay, The Founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958); Peter H. Merkl, The Origins of the West German Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1963); and Ulrike Liebert, Modelle demokratischer Konsolidierung: Parlamente und organisierte Interessen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Italien and Spanien (1948-1990) (Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1995).
21. Karlheinz Niclauss, "Political Reconstruction at Bonn," in Herz, ed.; John Ford Golay, The Founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958); Peter H. Merkl, The Origins of the West German Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1963); and Ulrike Liebert, Modelle demokratischer Konsolidierung: Parlamente und organisierte Interessen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Italien and Spanien (1948-1990) (Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1995).
22. Karlheinz Niclauss, "Political Reconstruction at Bonn," in Herz, ed.; John Ford Golay, The Founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958); Peter H. Merkl, The Origins of the West German Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1963); and Ulrike Liebert, Modelle demokratischer Konsolidierung: Parlamente und organisierte Interessen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Italien and Spanien (1948-1990) (Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1995).
23. Donald P. Kommers, "The Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany: An Assessment after Forty Years," in Merkl, ed., The Federal Republic of Germany at Forty.
24. Max Weber, "Capitalism and Rural Society in Germany," in H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, eds., From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1946).
25. Alexander Gerschenkron, Bread and Democracy in Germany (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1943); Barrington Moore, The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Boston: Beacon, 1967).
26. Alexander Gerschenkron, Bread and Democracy in Germany (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1943); Barrington Moore, The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Boston: Beacon, 1967).
27. Prussia can refer to at least two different geographic units. It can mean the areas east of the Elbe that were the historic homeland of the Junkers. It can also mean the kingdom of Prussia, which after German unification encompassed two-thirds of the territory of the German Empire. This Prussia continued to have its own state government under the Weimar Republic.
28. Norbert Elias, The Germans (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), describes the adoption of the aristocratic ethos by the middle classes in the late Wilhelmine period and its long-term ramifications for the persistence of authoritarianism in Germany.
29. Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Evelyne Huber Stephens, and John D. Stephens, Capitalist Development and Democracy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
30. Gerschenkron, pp. 26-28.
31. Moore, "Epilogue."
32. Gregory M. Luebbert, Liberalism, Fascism, or Social Democracy? (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), pp. 82-84, 282-85.
33. Rueschemeyer, Stephens, and Stephens, p. 115.
34. Conradt discusses the disappearance of the Junkers and of sharp rural/urban cleavages in his discussion of the modernization of the social structure of West Germany. Frye and Dahrendorf also mention the disappearance of the Junkers and the territorial basis of their power in their discussions of the pluralization of the postwar West German elite. See Conradt, pp. 259-60; Charles E. Frye, "The Third Reich and the Second Republic: National Socialism's Impact upon German Democracy," Western Political Quarterly, 21 (1968), 675; Ralf Dahrendorf, Gesellschaft und Freiheit (Munich: Piper, 1961), p. 303.
35. Conradt discusses the disappearance of the Junkers and of sharp rural/urban cleavages in his discussion of the modernization of the social structure of West Germany. Frye and Dahrendorf also mention the disappearance of the Junkers and the territorial basis of their power in their discussions of the pluralization of the postwar West German elite. See Conradt, pp. 259-60; Charles E. Frye, "The Third Reich and the Second Republic: National Socialism's Impact upon German Democracy," Western Political Quarterly, 21 (1968), 675; Ralf Dahrendorf, Gesellschaft und Freiheit (Munich: Piper, 1961), p. 303.
36. Conradt discusses the disappearance of the Junkers and of sharp rural/urban cleavages in his discussion of the modernization of the social structure of West Germany. Frye and Dahrendorf also mention the disappearance of the Junkers and the territorial basis of their power in their discussions of the pluralization of the postwar West German elite. See Conradt, pp. 259-60; Charles E. Frye, "The Third Reich and the Second Republic: National Socialism's Impact upon German Democracy," Western Political Quarterly, 21 (1968), 675; Ralf Dahrendorf, Gesellschaft und Freiheit (Munich: Piper, 1961), p. 303.
37. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, Germany in the Weimar Republic, ICPSR 0042 (Ann Arbor: ICPSR, 1977).
38. The size of the electoral districts in this election were much larger, and I could not locate an accurate map of their boundaries. Thus, I decided it was better to omit this election than to guess where the demarcations lay on the basis of regional names.
39. Many of the Weimar Republic's governments had an exceptional character. Several were minority governments and served only as long as the opposition abstained from unseating them. Other governments were composed of experts, and, even when party politicians participated in them, the support of their parties was not guaranteed. Finally, a number of minority governments temporarily ruled in cooperation with the president through the short-term decree powers enumerated in the Weimar constitution.
40. I performed a range of chi-squared tests on the data. In all cases but one the chi-squared values were sufficiently large that the null hypothesis (that the east-west differences in seat outcomes was not so large that they could have occured by chance) was comfortably rejected (p<.001). When I ran the test on the percentage of seats each party would have won according to the conversion formulas for the Reichstag for each part of Germany, the result for 1933 was a bit higher than conventional levels (.1> p >.05). This result was not particularly troubling for two reasons. First, the elections of 1933 were neither free nor fair; the Nazis used the power of the state to coerce their opponents, and this coercion should have had the effect of reducing differences between the east and west. Second, the test was performed on a second order measure (percentage of mandates). Results of all tests are available from the author on request.
41. M. Rainer Lepsius, "From Fragmented Party Democracy to Government by Emergency Decree and National Socialist Takeover: Germany," in Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, eds., The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes, vol. 2 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), p. 35.
42. In tabulating democratic potential I have categorized the DNVP, NSDAP, and KPD as disloyal, the USPD and DVP as semiloyal, and the SPD, DDP, Zentrum, and BVP as loyal. The parties whose vote is compiled as "other" are the parties that Lepsius calls particularistic. See Juan Linz, "Crisis, Breakdown, and Reequilibration," in Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, eds., The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes, vol. 1 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), p. 32.
43. Lepsius, pp. 35-36.
44. Lepsius, p. 52; Hans Mommsen, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), p. 365.
45. Lepsius, p. 52; Hans Mommsen, The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), p. 365.
46. Linz, p. 26.
47. Giovanni Sartori, Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 132ff..
48. In a separate analysis of the component parts of eastern Germany, I discovered a regional basis for this polarization. The parts that were lost as a result of World War II were clearly the most reactionary parts of the country. The parts that became the postwar DDR show a much stronger leftist tradition than those to their east but also a powerful pull to the far right. This configuration made this area the most polarized part of the country. In all elections the combined percentage of vote for the left (SPD, USPD, and KPD) and the right (DNVP and NSDAP) was over seventy percent and by 1932 an astounding 90 percent.
49. To the extent that the strength of the center in the west was a product of its larger Catholic population, part of the explanation for the difference between the regions of Germany is based on a preindustrial cleavage. The politicization of this cleavage in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, though, was a product of authoritarian development, specifically the sharp persecution of Catholics during the 1870s.
50. The Müller government also included the DVP because of the need to address a host of pressing economic issues (unemployment compensation, reparations, and the budget). The support of the DVP Reichstag caucus for the government was very soft.
51. For example, Luebbert; Ruth Berins Collier and David Collier, Shaping the Political Arena (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993); and Rueschemeyer, Stephens, and Stephens.
52. For example, Linz; Guillermo O'Donnell and Philippe C. Schmitter, "Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies," in Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986); Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991); Huntington; Michael Burton, Richard Gunther, and John Higley, "Introduction: Elite Transformations and Democratic Regimes," in John Higley and Richard Gunther, eds., Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America and Southern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992); and Giuseppe Di Palma, To Craft Democracies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
53. For example, Linz; Guillermo O'Donnell and Philippe C. Schmitter, "Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies," in Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986); Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991); Huntington; Michael Burton, Richard Gunther, and John Higley, "Introduction: Elite Transformations and Democratic Regimes," in John Higley and Richard Gunther, eds., Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America and Southern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992); and Giuseppe Di Palma, To Craft Democracies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
54. For example, Linz; Guillermo O'Donnell and Philippe C. Schmitter, "Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies," in Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986); Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991); Huntington; Michael Burton, Richard Gunther, and John Higley, "Introduction: Elite Transformations and Democratic Regimes," in John Higley and Richard Gunther, eds., Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America and Southern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992); and Giuseppe Di Palma, To Craft Democracies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
55. For example, Linz; Guillermo O'Donnell and Philippe C. Schmitter, "Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies," in Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986); Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991); Huntington; Michael Burton, Richard Gunther, and John Higley, "Introduction: Elite Transformations and Democratic Regimes," in John Higley and Richard Gunther, eds., Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America and Southern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992); and Giuseppe Di Palma, To Craft Democracies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
56. Steven Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman, "The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions," Comparative Politics, 29 (April 1997); J. Samuel Valenzuela, "Labor Movements in the Transition to Democracy," Comparative Politics, 21 (July 1989).
57. Steven Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman, "The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions," Comparative Politics, 29 (April 1997); J. Samuel Valenzuela, "Labor Movements in the Transition to Democracy," Comparative Politics, 21 (July 1989).
58. See the many studies cited by David Collier and Steven Levitsky, "Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research," World Politics, 49 (1996).
59. Notably, Collier and Collier; Luebbert.
60. John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II (New York: Norton/The New Press, 1999).
61. David Schoenbaum, Hitler's Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939 (Garden City: Doubleday, 1966).
62. Przeworski, esp. ch. 1