Amir Abedi

We Are Not In Bonn Anymore: The Impact of German Unification on Party Systems at the Federal and Land levels

This article assesses the German party system and its development over time. Offering a systematic examination of elections at the national and sub-national levels and using a variety of qualitative and quantitative indicators, this article shows that unification has had a significant impact on party system development. While partisan dealignment among the western electorate and a lack of significant party alignment among eastern voters has led to converging behavioural patterns, there are still notable differences between the party systems in the two regions. The two parties that have dominated government formation at the federal level, the CDU/CSU and the SPD, still do better in the West, while the PDS/Die Linke continues to secure higher vote shares in the East. The FDP and the Greens consistently score higher results in the older states while the parties linked to the populist, radical, and/or extreme right have recently proven more successful in the younger ones. These differences are rooted in the distinctive voter bases of the respective parties and special characteristics attributed to the East German electorate.

The Kingmaker Is Dead, Long Live The Kingmaker: Examining The Degree Of Influence Of Small Parties In The Coalition-Formation Process In Germany

This article examines the role of small parties in the German party system. It thus attempts to make a contribution to a largely under-researched topic in the existing literature. The goal is to determine the influence and ultimately the pivotal role of small parties over time both federally and in each Land (1949–2010). For that purpose we develop a five-point ‘opportunity structure’ scale. During the heyday of West Germanys two-and-a-half-party system (from the early 1960s to the early 1980s) the FDP was not just the main small party but the pivotal kingmaker at least federally, deciding which of the major parties (CDU/CSU or SPD) would be in government. Since then the Greens and later the PDS/die Linke have also become durable small parties and play an important role in the government formation process. The analysis shows that based on our measure the Greens have at least equalled if not surpassed the FDP as the countrys most influential small party since they emerged on the political scene in the early 1980s.