The Road to Democracy in Germany The Role of State and National Elections, 1946-2011

by Culver, Lowell W.

• ISBN13: 9780761857747
• ISBN10: 0761857745
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-12-22
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

This book considers how a financial crisis develops and how a government responds to a financial crisis. In an attempt to shed light on these questions, it closely examines two cases Mexico during the Mexican Peso Crisis of 1994 to 1995 and Malaysia during the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 to 1998. Sümer argues that economic explanations of financial crises fail to fully answer these questions since they do not pay enough attention to non-economic factors stemming from a countryÆs political, societal, institutional, and external contents. The examination of the Mexico and Malaysia cases illustrates this argument and shows that multiple non-economic factorsùdomestic political, societal, institutional, psychological, and ideological factors as well as external influences and pressuresùcan play roles as significant as economic factors. Interplay of these non-economic factors with economic ones brought these financial crises and shaped the Mexican and the Malaysian governmentsÆ policy behaviors. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Fahrettin SMer earned his M.A. degree in political science from Rutgers university and his Ph. D. in international studies from the University of South Carolina. During his doctoral training in the Department of Government and International Studies (currently the Department of Political Science), he earned a second M.A. degree in economics from the Moore School of Business at the same university. Since completion of his Ph.D. in 2003, he has published several articles and taught multiple international relations, comparative politics, and economics courses in South Carolina and Virginia. He has recently taught international studies and comparative politics courses at Virginia Commonwealth University. His research interests include the causes and implications of globalization, financial crises and governmental responses, international political economy, international conflict, and international integration. Lowell W. Culver has followed political developments in Germany for nearly half a century. He was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Hamburg and later a Fulbright exchange professor at the University of Oldenburg. In addition to this study on German elections, he has authored a historical novel on Germany in World War II under the title Journey Into Darkness and a number of articles and conference papers on such subjects as state and local elections, right-extremism, regional cooperation, and the German party system since reunification. As a member of the Chicago-Hamburg Sister Cities Committee, he has been responsible for the student exchange between Chicago and the Hansastadt since 1998. He and his wife share time between the United States and Germany, where they teach at two institutions of higher learning. Culver holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Foreword	p. ix
Acronyms	p. xi
About The Book	p. 1
The Economic Explanations of Financial Crises and of Governmental Responses	p. 17
The Shortcomings of the Economic Explanations: The Mexican Case	p. 30
The Impact of Non-Economic Factors: The Mexican Case	p. 47
The Shortcomings of the Economic Explanations: The Malaysian Case	p. 97
The Impact of Non-Economic Factors: The Malaysian Case	p. 104
Financial Crises, Non-Economic Factors, and Governmental Responses	p. 180
Mexico's Historical Background	p. 197
Malaysia's Historical Background	p. 204
Mexico's Economic Indicators in the Late 1980s and 1990s	p. 211
Malaysia's Economic Indicators in Comparison with some Asian Countries in the 1990s	p. 219
Bibliography	p. 227
Index	p. 241
List Of Tables	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Glossary Of German Political Parties	p. xv
Introduction	p. xvii
The Creation Of The Länder
The First Land And Bundestag Elections
The 1946-1947 Elections in the American, British and French Zones
The Establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany The First Bundestag Election
The First Elections Under The New Federation	p. 43
The Influence of the Establishment of the Bonn Government
The Politics of Political Fragmentation
The 1949-1952 Land Elections
The Bourgeois Alliances and CDU/CSU-SPD Rivalry
The Rise of Refugee Political Movements
Early Postwar Extremist Parties
Political Developments of the 1949-1953 Period
Elections In The Period Of Christian Union Dominance	p. 75
The 1953 Bundestag Election
The 1953-1956 Land Elections
The 1957 Bundestag Election
The CDU/CSU as Dominant Party
Party Stabilization And Spd Resurgence	p. 99
The Transformation of Social Democratic Appeal
The 1957-1960 Land Elections
The 1961 Bundestag Election
The 1961-1965 Land Elections
The End of the Adenauer Era
The 1965 Bundestag Election
State And National Elections From 1965 To Reunification	p. 129
The Two-and-a-Half Party System
The 1966-1968 Land Elections
The 1969 Bundestag Election
The 1970-1972 Land Elections
The 1972 Bundestag Election
The 1974-1976 Land Elections
The 1976 Bundestag Election
The 1978-1980 Land Elections
The 1980 Bundestag Election
The 1982 Land Elections
The 1983 Bundestag Election
The 1983-1986 Land Elections
The 1987 Bundestag Election
The 1987-1990 Land Elections
State And National Elections From Reunification To The Present	p. 161
The 1990 Bundestag Election
The 1990-1994 Land Elections
The 1994 Bundestag Election
The 1994-1998 Land Elections
The 1998 Bundestag Election
The 1998-2001 Land Elections
The 2002 Bundestag Election
The 2002-2005 Land Elections
The 2005 Bundestag Election
The 2006-2009 Land Elections
The 2009 Bundestag Election
The 2010-2011 Land Elections
State And National Electoral Systems	p. 215
Early Electoral Arrangements
National Electoral Arrangements
Present Electoral Systems in the States
Voting Qualifications
The Future
Elections And The Party System	p. 245
Regional and National Party Developments 1946-1965
The Three-Party Era in the Bund and Länder
The German Party System Since Reunification
The Future of the German Party System
State And National Governments In German Politics	p. 277
The Early Ministries
State and National Ministries from 1966 to 1990
State and National Ministries since Reunification
Coalition Patterns in the Länder
Coalition Patterns in the Western States
Coalition Patterns in the Eastern States
Land Coalitions and the Bundesrat
Reflections On German Elections335
Appendices
Electoral System Devised for the 1946 British Zone Elections
Chronological Table of Land and Bundestag Elections
Dates of Bundestag and Landtag/Bürgerschaft Elections by State
Berlin Elections Prior to Reunification
Sample Ballots
2004 Hamburg Bürgerschaft Election
2009 Schleswig-Holstein Bundestag Election
2009 Schleswig-Holstein Landtag Election
Bibliography	p. 365
Index	p. 379
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