The End of party democracy in Germany?

Today,the most common form of democratic governing is representative democracy. Its distinction is thatpolitical declaration of will occurs indirectly, through at regular intervals elected representatives. Oneof its brand is so-called party democracy, in which political parties in fact have an exclusive right tonominate candidates for elective offices and dominate in representative bodies. It means that politicalparties play the leading role in the decision-making process. The rawest spot of this form of democraticgoverning is the great distance between the power and society, which appears in limitation of a citizen'slegal capacity not only to influence party politics during the term of mandate (for example, byrecalling of delegates), but also to choose their representatives directly, who (by proportional electoralsystems) are determined by party tickets, i.e. inner-party procedures closed for electors. Along withthe risk of non-fulfillment of election pledges it creates a favorable environment to lobbyism and corruptionand thereby threatens the power with the loss of legitimacy. On the other side, the growingdifferentiation of modern society and therefore the diversity of interests in need of accumulation leadto fragmentation of a party landscape, which can threaten the stability of a political system. Not onlycontinuity of government policy is at hazard, but also formation of governments able to function inprinciple, especially in federated states.The authors of this article tally up an intermediate total of the 60-year-old history of party democracyin the FRG, concentrating on its evolution at three levels: federal, regional and local. In considerationof above-mentioned threats they put a question about the future of party democracy in Germanyby analyzing four aspects: parties role in the state, parties role in society, parties and party system,mediators role of parties. Stating the unshakeable formal role of parties and the lack of political expressionof anti-party sentiments at the federal and regional level, the authors note the problem of recruitmentof candidates at the local level. By analyzing the dynamics of: membership size and agestructure of parties, participation of young people in party politics, voter turnout, percentage of constantelectors, public opinion, - they come to conclusion that legitimacy of parties has been falling.Analyzing the dynamics of power concentration the authors state the evolution from a two-party systemto a fluid five-party system. They note the crisis of mediators role of parties and party system inwhole. The authors see the solution in further democratization of parties themselves and society ingeneral and bind the future of German democracy with direct civil participation.

Keywords

Authors

References