First Published in 1981. The essential stability of the Federal German Republic was once more confirmed by the outcome of the 1980 election. In other respects too, there was little evidence that Western Germany would emulate the 'crisis situation' affecting other West European states. Yet 'stability' is not an immobile condition, and since it results from the interaction of a number of factors - political, social and economic - no single explanation of Germany's performance is likely to be convincing. Furthermore, West Germany has to face several unresolved problems which, although not pointing to a fundamental crisis, remind us that the concept of 'stability' has to be approached with care. The essays in this book reflect these ideas, and they explore a range of issues that are central to the understanding of contemporary German politics. The political focus is apparent in the analyses of the 1980 federal election and in the related contributions on political leadership and the questions surrounding German political culture. However, other themes also merit detailed attention: West German foreign policy and the Deutschlandpolitik as well as problems associated with university reform, the interpretation of German history, and the considerations affecting both the management and the performance of the West German economy. Finally, the discussion is concluded by examining the question of whether the German democracy does have 'secrets' that might explain the stability of the political system.

This authoritative study, written by experts in their fields and originally published in 1989, provides a comprehensive introduction to aspects of West German society, politics and economics. Individual chapters investigate West German politics, education, industrial relations, the media and the relations between the two German states.

This book gives up-to-date assessments of key trends and issues in the Federal Republic with sufficient background analysis to make the treatment of the various topics accessible to those without detailed prior knowledge of German politics.

In this volume, originally published in 1984, the author examines the social composition of the electorate, of membership and leadership of West German political parties, as well as their representation and finances. Kolinsky argues that while affiliation and electorates remained distinct, the social composition of party organisations became narrower and more uniform. The book examines how the parties became alienated from contemporary West German society and discusses the difficulties experienced by opposition parties in trying to develop alternative strategies, in particular those of the Green Party.

Stereotypical descriptions showcase West Germany as an "economic miracle" or cast it in the narrow terms of Cold War politics. Such depictions neglect how material hardship preceded success and how a fascist past and communist sibling complicated the country's image as a bastion of democracy. Even more disappointing, they brush over a rich and variegated cultural history. That history is told here by leading scholars of German history, literature, and film in what is destined to become the volume on postwar West German culture and society. In it, we read about the lives of real people--from German children fathered by black Occupation soldiers to communist activists, from surviving Jews to Turkish "guest" workers, from young hoodlums to middle-class mothers. We learn how they experienced and represented the institutions and social forces that shaped their lives and defined the wider culture. We see how two generations of West Germans came to terms not only with war guilt, division from East Germany, and the Angst of nuclear threat, but also with changing gender relations, the Americanization of popular culture, and the rise of conspicuous consumption. Individually, these essays peer into fascinating, overlooked corners of German life. Together, they tell what it really meant to live in West Germany in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to the editor, the contributors are Volker R. Berghahn, Frank Biess, Heide Fehrenbach, Michael Geyer, Elizabeth Heineman, Ulrich Herbert, Maria Höhn, Karin Hunn, Kaspar Maase, Richard McCormick, Robert G. Moeller, Lutz Niethammer, Uta G. Poiger, Diethelm Prowe, Frank Stern, Arnold Sywottek, Frank Trommler, Eric D. Weitz, Juliane Wetzel, and Dorothee Wierling.

In May 2000, scholars of history, law, politics, and economics gathered in London to compare their various methodological and empirical perspectives on the 1989-90 collapse of the Germanies into a unity, and the aftermath of the event from the perspective of a decade on. Their 14 studies cover histo

This book explores the effects of Germany's unification in 1990 on its policies toward the European Union.

This book offers a view of West German social structure and political culture from a multidisciplinary perspective. Focusing on the remarkable changes that have taken place in West Germany since World War II, it provides a basis for judging what direction a united Germany is likely to take.

'No other book that I am aware of places the German industrial relations system in the broader industrial and political context in an effort to understand the role of the industrial relations system in contributing to a nation's economic success and how that role is being affected by economic and political change.'—James P. Begin, Rutgers University The reunification of Germany in 1990 juxtaposed two very different models of industrial relations. This volume assesses the results. By the late 1980s, West Germany had developed and refined a largely collaborative relationship between business and labor, codified in law, that governed industrial relations effectively. How would East German workers, operating within a completely different system for forty years, respond to West Germany's institutional social partnership? Would western-style social partnership spread to all of the New Germany, or find itself seriously destabilized? The internationally recognized scholars who contribute to this volume are unanimous in their admiration of key elements in the German model. They diverge, however, on their assessments of the resilience of that model in the face of dramatic new challenges in the 1990s.