Pub Date : 2022-09-09DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2022.2117800
Sigrid Rossteutscher, T. Faas, A. Leininger, Armin Schäfer
ABSTRACT Some scholars argue that lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years led to declining turnout rates and increasing political inequality. Individuals in this age bracket are often no longer in school, frequently moved out from their parental home and are thus no longer within reach of the major political socialisation agents. We empirically test some of these claims and their effects on youngsters’ political interest and turnout on a behavioural level. We use the 2017 state election in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein as our case, as the voting age had been lowered to 16 prior to this election. Thus, we are able to compare interest and turnout of those who are 16 and 17 years old with ‘traditional’ first-time voters at age 18. Our results show that lowering the voting age to 16 is unlikely to enfranchise a group of voters with an extraordinarily low propensity to turnout. It might in fact have a (relative) positive effect compared to slightly older voters, as more citizens at this age are still part of social networks that are conducive to electoral participation. At the same time, lowering the voting age might magnify existing inequalities because of network homogeneity.
{"title":"Lowering the Quality of Democracy by Lowering the Voting Age? Comparing the Impact of School, Classmates, and Parents on 15- to 18-Year-Olds’ Political Interest and Turnout","authors":"Sigrid Rossteutscher, T. Faas, A. Leininger, Armin Schäfer","doi":"10.1080/09644008.2022.2117800","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2022.2117800","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Some scholars argue that lowering the voting age from 21 to 18 years led to declining turnout rates and increasing political inequality. Individuals in this age bracket are often no longer in school, frequently moved out from their parental home and are thus no longer within reach of the major political socialisation agents. We empirically test some of these claims and their effects on youngsters’ political interest and turnout on a behavioural level. We use the 2017 state election in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein as our case, as the voting age had been lowered to 16 prior to this election. Thus, we are able to compare interest and turnout of those who are 16 and 17 years old with ‘traditional’ first-time voters at age 18. Our results show that lowering the voting age to 16 is unlikely to enfranchise a group of voters with an extraordinarily low propensity to turnout. It might in fact have a (relative) positive effect compared to slightly older voters, as more citizens at this age are still part of social networks that are conducive to electoral participation. At the same time, lowering the voting age might magnify existing inequalities because of network homogeneity.","PeriodicalId":46640,"journal":{"name":"German Politics","volume":"31 1","pages":"483 - 510"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47657424","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-03DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2022.2103544
Stefan Wurster, Markus B. Siewert, S. Jäckle, J. Steinert
{"title":"Introduction to the Special Issue: The First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany","authors":"Stefan Wurster, Markus B. Siewert, S. Jäckle, J. Steinert","doi":"10.1080/09644008.2022.2103544","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2022.2103544","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46640,"journal":{"name":"German Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45674999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-04DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2022.2093858
Daniel Beck
{"title":"‘Our Sofa was the Front’- Ontological Insecurity and the German Government’s Humourous Heroification of Couch Potatoes During COVID-19","authors":"Daniel Beck","doi":"10.1080/09644008.2022.2093858","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2022.2093858","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46640,"journal":{"name":"German Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46682363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-27DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2022.2072488
S. Pickel, Gert Pickel
ABSTRACT Do lasting differences in the political cultures of social subgroups call into question the legitimacy of democracy? This danger has been discussed for three decades now, always in the run up to German Unity Day, which marks the reunification of Germany in 1990. Is there still a ‘wall in people’s minds’, as postulated in the late 1990s? This article examines the question comparatively and over time: Do political cultures and their main political attitudes still differ between Western and Eastern Germany 30 years after reunification? And, if so, to what extent? Using an extended concept of political support, we analyse East–West differences by drawing on different data material from representative surveys. What we show that there is no deficit of legitimacy in Eastern Germany in terms of democracy. Nevertheless, there are consistent East–West differences in terms of people’s satisfaction with democracy as it is currently practised. These differences can be explained neither by existing socio-economic and socio-structural inequalities between Eastern and Western Germany, and nor by feelings of nostalgia for socialism. Rather, they are due to a combination of feelings of disadvantage, of a lack of recognition, and corresponding narratives that can draw on objective manifestations of inequality.
{"title":"The Wall in the Mind – Revisited Stable Differences in the Political Cultures of Western and Eastern Germany","authors":"S. Pickel, Gert Pickel","doi":"10.1080/09644008.2022.2072488","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2022.2072488","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Do lasting differences in the political cultures of social subgroups call into question the legitimacy of democracy? This danger has been discussed for three decades now, always in the run up to German Unity Day, which marks the reunification of Germany in 1990. Is there still a ‘wall in people’s minds’, as postulated in the late 1990s? This article examines the question comparatively and over time: Do political cultures and their main political attitudes still differ between Western and Eastern Germany 30 years after reunification? And, if so, to what extent? Using an extended concept of political support, we analyse East–West differences by drawing on different data material from representative surveys. What we show that there is no deficit of legitimacy in Eastern Germany in terms of democracy. Nevertheless, there are consistent East–West differences in terms of people’s satisfaction with democracy as it is currently practised. These differences can be explained neither by existing socio-economic and socio-structural inequalities between Eastern and Western Germany, and nor by feelings of nostalgia for socialism. Rather, they are due to a combination of feelings of disadvantage, of a lack of recognition, and corresponding narratives that can draw on objective manifestations of inequality.","PeriodicalId":46640,"journal":{"name":"German Politics","volume":"32 1","pages":"20 - 42"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59681112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-23DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2022.2088732
Rikki Dean, F. Hoffmann, Brigitte Geißel, Stefan Jung, Bruno Wipfler
{"title":"Citizen Deliberation in Germany: Lessons from the ‘Bürgerrat Demokratie’","authors":"Rikki Dean, F. Hoffmann, Brigitte Geißel, Stefan Jung, Bruno Wipfler","doi":"10.1080/09644008.2022.2088732","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2022.2088732","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46640,"journal":{"name":"German Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46406507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-23DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2022.2088733
Benjamin Ewert, Kathrin Loer
ABSTRACT This article understands COVID-19 as an eruptive event with severe effects on many policy fields beyond (public) health. Based on this assumption, we consider the pandemic as a catalyst for policy change across policy fields. For that reason, we suggest a new approach for conceptualising eruptive events as triggers that provoke far-reaching change and spillover effects in fields of policymaking. These are characterised by a complex problem structure – conceived of as clusters of trigger points – in need of intersectoral policymaking. Our approach suggests a mechanism of multi-dimensional spillover that initiates new dynamics to gridlocked policy processes by acting with regard to the most pressing trigger points. To test the concept, we take an explorative look at public health, educational policy and food and agricultural policy in Germany. The examples demonstrate how the concept of problem-related trigger points and spillover effects can be applied to analyse policy change across policy areas in pandemic times and beyond.
{"title":"COVID-19 as a Catalyst for Policy Change: The Role of Trigger Points and Spillover Effects","authors":"Benjamin Ewert, Kathrin Loer","doi":"10.1080/09644008.2022.2088733","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2022.2088733","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article understands COVID-19 as an eruptive event with severe effects on many policy fields beyond (public) health. Based on this assumption, we consider the pandemic as a catalyst for policy change across policy fields. For that reason, we suggest a new approach for conceptualising eruptive events as triggers that provoke far-reaching change and spillover effects in fields of policymaking. These are characterised by a complex problem structure – conceived of as clusters of trigger points – in need of intersectoral policymaking. Our approach suggests a mechanism of multi-dimensional spillover that initiates new dynamics to gridlocked policy processes by acting with regard to the most pressing trigger points. To test the concept, we take an explorative look at public health, educational policy and food and agricultural policy in Germany. The examples demonstrate how the concept of problem-related trigger points and spillover effects can be applied to analyse policy change across policy areas in pandemic times and beyond.","PeriodicalId":46640,"journal":{"name":"German Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42395778","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-22DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2022.2087871
Michael A. Hansen, J. Olsen
This article analyses the vote for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the 2021 German Federal Election. Using the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES), we confirm some findings from previous studies, above all that attitudinal variables – including anti-immigrant ideology – are much stronger predictors of the AfD vote than socio-demographic variables. Moreover, we uncover three new findings in relation to vote choice for the AfD. First, anti-EU attitudes had a positive, statistically significant impact on AfD vote choice in 2021. Second, negative attitudes towards political elites increased the probability of voting for the AfD. Third, and perhaps most important, dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was positively related to voting for the AfD. Given these results, we argue here that the AfD has become something of a populist ‘issue entrepreneur’ which, while exploiting existing niches in the electoral marketplace (the EU and migration), is finding new issues to tap and exploit. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of German Politics is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
{"title":"The Alternative for Germany (AfD) as Populist Issue Entrepreneur: Explaining the Party and its Voters in the 2021 German Federal Election","authors":"Michael A. Hansen, J. Olsen","doi":"10.1080/09644008.2022.2087871","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2022.2087871","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the vote for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the 2021 German Federal Election. Using the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES), we confirm some findings from previous studies, above all that attitudinal variables – including anti-immigrant ideology – are much stronger predictors of the AfD vote than socio-demographic variables. Moreover, we uncover three new findings in relation to vote choice for the AfD. First, anti-EU attitudes had a positive, statistically significant impact on AfD vote choice in 2021. Second, negative attitudes towards political elites increased the probability of voting for the AfD. Third, and perhaps most important, dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was positively related to voting for the AfD. Given these results, we argue here that the AfD has become something of a populist ‘issue entrepreneur’ which, while exploiting existing niches in the electoral marketplace (the EU and migration), is finding new issues to tap and exploit. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of German Politics is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)","PeriodicalId":46640,"journal":{"name":"German Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43038933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-07DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2022.2054989
D. Braun, Eva‐Maria Trüdinger
ABSTRACT It is uncontested that political trust is highly relevant in democratic political systems. Although scholars have begun to study to a larger extent political trust in new democracies, this latter interest has faded away in recent times. To reinvigorate awareness of this area, thirty years after German reunification, we take stock of political trust in East and West Germany. Drawing on ESS data from 2002 to 2018 (ESS 1–9), we study empirically the convergence hypothesis in view of both the levels of political trust and the particular quality of citizens’ trust in its democratic institutions. Our findings show that we can still not speak of a convergence of the mere levels of trust in East and West Germany: East Germans do still display lower levels of trust in both representative and regulatory institutions. Regarding the quality of political trust, however, the gap between East and West is less pronounced. These findings are highly relevant for both research on the social and psychological underpinnings of trust and the assessment of the consequences of the undemocratic heritage for the German political system.
{"title":"Communal and Exchange-Based Trust in Germany Thirty Years After Reunification: Convergence or Still an East–West Divide?","authors":"D. Braun, Eva‐Maria Trüdinger","doi":"10.1080/09644008.2022.2054989","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2022.2054989","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT It is uncontested that political trust is highly relevant in democratic political systems. Although scholars have begun to study to a larger extent political trust in new democracies, this latter interest has faded away in recent times. To reinvigorate awareness of this area, thirty years after German reunification, we take stock of political trust in East and West Germany. Drawing on ESS data from 2002 to 2018 (ESS 1–9), we study empirically the convergence hypothesis in view of both the levels of political trust and the particular quality of citizens’ trust in its democratic institutions. Our findings show that we can still not speak of a convergence of the mere levels of trust in East and West Germany: East Germans do still display lower levels of trust in both representative and regulatory institutions. Regarding the quality of political trust, however, the gap between East and West is less pronounced. These findings are highly relevant for both research on the social and psychological underpinnings of trust and the assessment of the consequences of the undemocratic heritage for the German political system.","PeriodicalId":46640,"journal":{"name":"German Politics","volume":"32 1","pages":"43 - 62"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47943743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-27DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2022.2078964
Felix Hörisch, Stefan Wurster, Markus B. Siewert
ABSTRACT The Covid-19 pandemic is a major global crisis the impact of which is likely to exceed the upheavals caused by the last financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009. Germany as an export-oriented economy faces tremendous economic threats in the aftermath of the pandemic such as the collapse of global supply chains, the lockdown of economic sectors and impending job losses. As a reaction, the German government adopted, much as in the previous financial crisis, fiscal stimulus packages as part of a Keynesian-style public spending programme to stabilise its economy. Yet, in addition, the German government explicitly conceptualised its reactions as part of a ‘Package for the Future’ (Zukunftspaket), interlinking it with the second big global challenge: climate change and environmental degradation. We evaluate the German stimulus package on both these goals by comparing it with stimulus packages passed in other G20 countries. Based on a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) added by a case study of Germany, we identify the driving determinants behind the fiscal policy reactions with regard to the size of the stimulus package as well as its contribution to adopt long-term environmental transformations.
{"title":"Large-Scale and Green? The German Covid-19 Stimulus Package in International Comparison","authors":"Felix Hörisch, Stefan Wurster, Markus B. Siewert","doi":"10.1080/09644008.2022.2078964","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2022.2078964","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT\u0000 The Covid-19 pandemic is a major global crisis the impact of which is likely to exceed the upheavals caused by the last financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009. Germany as an export-oriented economy faces tremendous economic threats in the aftermath of the pandemic such as the collapse of global supply chains, the lockdown of economic sectors and impending job losses. As a reaction, the German government adopted, much as in the previous financial crisis, fiscal stimulus packages as part of a Keynesian-style public spending programme to stabilise its economy. Yet, in addition, the German government explicitly conceptualised its reactions as part of a ‘Package for the Future’ (Zukunftspaket), interlinking it with the second big global challenge: climate change and environmental degradation. We evaluate the German stimulus package on both these goals by comparing it with stimulus packages passed in other G20 countries. Based on a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) added by a case study of Germany, we identify the driving determinants behind the fiscal policy reactions with regard to the size of the stimulus package as well as its contribution to adopt long-term environmental transformations.","PeriodicalId":46640,"journal":{"name":"German Politics","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-05-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47354430","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-20DOI: 10.1080/09644008.2022.2038569
Melanie Kintz
ABSTRACT The representation of East Germans in elite positions has been a broadly debated topic. Most studies show that, comparative to other elite sectors, East Germans are best represented in politics. However, in some areas of the political sector, like the federal government, we find very few East Germans, despite Angela Merkel’s chancellorship. This paper looks at East German representation in parliamentary leadership positions. It finds East Germans remain underrepresented in these positions, especially outside of The Left. It explores three explanatory approaches: (1) there are not enough East Germans in the recruitment pool, (2) East German members lack the desired qualifications and (3) the leadership recruitment process is biased against East Germans. Using statistical analysis based on a biographical dataset including all MPs from the 13th to the 18th legislative period, it finds that both low East German membership in the Bundestag and the existence of a bias lead to underrepresentation of East Germans in those positions. While The Left tries to strongly represent East German interests by recruiting them into leadership positions, East Germans’ access to these positions in all other party parliamentary groups remains low. This has negative effects on the substantive representation of East Germans and on their trust in representative democracy.
{"title":"Beyond Merkel – East Germans’ Recruitment to Leadership Positions in the German Bundestag","authors":"Melanie Kintz","doi":"10.1080/09644008.2022.2038569","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2022.2038569","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The representation of East Germans in elite positions has been a broadly debated topic. Most studies show that, comparative to other elite sectors, East Germans are best represented in politics. However, in some areas of the political sector, like the federal government, we find very few East Germans, despite Angela Merkel’s chancellorship. This paper looks at East German representation in parliamentary leadership positions. It finds East Germans remain underrepresented in these positions, especially outside of The Left. It explores three explanatory approaches: (1) there are not enough East Germans in the recruitment pool, (2) East German members lack the desired qualifications and (3) the leadership recruitment process is biased against East Germans. Using statistical analysis based on a biographical dataset including all MPs from the 13th to the 18th legislative period, it finds that both low East German membership in the Bundestag and the existence of a bias lead to underrepresentation of East Germans in those positions. While The Left tries to strongly represent East German interests by recruiting them into leadership positions, East Germans’ access to these positions in all other party parliamentary groups remains low. This has negative effects on the substantive representation of East Germans and on their trust in representative democracy.","PeriodicalId":46640,"journal":{"name":"German Politics","volume":"32 1","pages":"127 - 148"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48864173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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