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Many authoritarian regimes in Asia have utilized emergency powers to legitimize their measures of suppressing political opponents and maintaining power. In opposition to previous interpretations that categorize Asian experiences as 'exceptional cases' when compared to 'normal' Western liberal democracies, this article suggests that this issue should be viewed within the context of the broader 'affinity' of the 'Sonderweg' phenomenon. The paper compares Germany, Japan and Korea by examining the complex 'diffusion' processes of constitutional emergency powers and also by illuminating systemic affinities and fundamental differences. It argues that elites and technocrats in Germany, Japan and Korea exhibited diverging patterns in adopting, filtering and utilizing these constitutional powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The historiographical debate on Wilhelm II’s alleged personal rule and on his role in the 1914 decision to go to war generally neglects how the institution of the kaiser (the imperial office) evolved in the context of the federal state. In addressing this lack of research, this essay exposes fundamental developments of the imperial office in the federal legislature and executive between 1871 and 1918. It argues that under the 1871 constitution the power of the Emperor was based on Prussia, which, in turn, made him subject to federal constraints. In the legislature, the evolution of the imperial office was characterized by the emergence of the right to initiate legislation and to veto laws, which turned the Emperor into a material factor in legislation. In the executive, his constitutionally established dominance increased over the years, for example in terms of the expansion of his right to decree ordinances across all fields of government. At the same time, the other federal organs, especially the Reichstag, tried to curtail qualitatively the new appointment powers of the kaiser in order to limit Wilhelm II’s disruptive influence on the political system. The general expansion of the Emperor’s legislative and executive power, however, was due to systemic reasons of federal evolution rather than the persons in office. This evolution should prompt historians to reconsider the role of the kaiser in imperial politics by paying more attention to the federal context and, especially, by measuring his conduct by what the capacity of his office looked like in constitutional reality at the relevant moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On election day, voters' commitment is crucial for political parties, but between elections members are an important resource for party organisations. However, membership figures have been dropping across parties and countries in the last decades. How does this trend affect parties' organisation? Following classics in party politics research as well as contemporary organisational theory literature, this study tests some of the most longstanding hypotheses in political science regarding the effects of membership size change. According to organisational learning theory, membership decline should induce an expansion of the party organisation. However, threat-rigidity theory and the work of Robert Michels suggest that parties are downsizing their organisation to match the decline in membership size. To test the hypotheses, 47 parties in six European countries (Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom) are followed annually between 1960 and 2010 on key organisational characteristics such as finances, professionalism and complexity. A total of 1,922 party-year observations are analysed. The results of multilevel modelling show that party membership decline triggers mixed effects. Declining membership size induces the employment of more staff, higher spending and a higher reliance on state subsidies. At the same time, it also triggers lower staff salaries and a reduction in the party's local presence. The findings indicate that today's parties are targeting an organisational structure that is custom-made for the electoral moment every four years. Faced with lasting membership decline, the party organisation retracts its organisational resources and focuses more on election day. Members matter to parties, but votes matter more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canonical works and recent studies posit that authoritarian repression, like that targeting Social Democrats during the 'Second Founding' of the German Empire, depends on structural factors such as landholding inequality. However, at this juncture, the role of these variables was more complex than that in the 'grand sweep' of German history. Liberal support for the 1878 Antisocialist Law was the result of an interaction between the strategy of the government and structures in society at large. Public outcry surrounding an assassination attempt on the Kaiser was provoked by the Chancellor through the press, and utilized as a political instrument by calling new elections. Liberals contesting districts with high landholding inequality came under conservative pressure led by landed aristocrats, and were forced to take up stances supporting repression. This first step in the 'Second Founding' of the Empire marked an important move away from liberal governance which precluded democratic reform in Imperial Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses higher education reform in Europe since World War II, with a particular focus on Germany. The role that higher education plays in increasing the percent of educated citizens within society is discussed. An overview of what is referred to as the new political economy, which is the economies of Western Countries' focus on information, management, services technology over agriculture, heavy industry and manufacturing, is provided. The German government's education policy, including its Excellence Initiative, which fosters cooperation between universities and promotes research, is discussed.

What determines party positions on issues of economic governance? Most previous research has pointed either to the presumed material interests of the parties' clienteles, or to the political institutions that shape electoral competition. Both approaches do well in explaining cross-national variation, but neither can adequately account for changes over time. This article documents German Social Democrats' policy preferences and the underlying discourse on organised capitalism from 1880 onward to highlight the crucial role of historical context. The interests reflected in party positions cannot simply be read off the material environment. Instead, as suggested by constructivist work on preference formation, they depend on theories regarding the causal effect of alterative policy measures. Following Peter Hall, we treat the evolution of such theories as a ‘process structured in space and time’, by illustrating how ‘context factors’ affect the relative salience of the multiple considerations pertaining to organised capital. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the political system in Germany. It says that the German Left is divided into three parts such as the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens party, and the Left Party (Die Linke). It mentions that the Social Democrats and the Greens have rejected the creation of a national governing coalition with the Left Party due to the latter isolation from the communist dictatorship and its unrealistic and unreliable attitude toward economic issues. It notes that the Christian Democratic Union headed by Angela Merkel, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the market-oriented Free Democrats comprise the parliamentary majority and government in the country.

The article discusses German statehood, focusing on the views of German philosopher Karl Jaspers, as expressed in books such as "Wohin treibt die Bundesrepublik?" (The Future of Germany). It offers a Russian perspective on the issues involved. The extent of the 21st century German nation's responsibility for crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi regime during World War II is addressed. The question of what role a remilitarized Germany might play within the context of the European Union is also discussed.

This article analyses changes in party-manifesto references to democracy in post-war Britain, the French Fifth Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany in order to explore changes in political parties' statements about democracy. It finds that in recent decades parties in all three countries have generally become more supportive of and more vocal in their calls for citizen participation in political decision-making, with a related increase in expressed support for direct democracy and other opportunities for participation. It also finds that left-wing parties have tended to be more enthusiastic than right-wing parties. The article suggests that changes are most likely parties' responses to wider shifts in societal values, and it concludes with a discussion of the significance of democracy-speak for both parties and citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the relationship between the supporters of new social movements (peace, ecology, arid anti-nuclear power) and the Green Party in contemporary Germany. In theoretical terms the research interest lies in the question of the extent to which the new social movements in Germany are responsible for a change in the nature of the party system. Particular attention is given to the historical and electoral ties as well as the value system and the ideological orientation of the Green voters and the followers of new social movements. Their over-all impact on future party system is still controversial: on the one hand, the Greens could prepare the way for a dealignment, and on the other hand they could determine the process of realignment within the German party system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the relationship of Germany and Eastern Europe. Comparison of Germany's role in the region between 1871 and 1945 to that of the period since 1989; Areas in which the nature of German influence in Eastern Europe is perceived to have changed, including cultural policy and security affairs; Opinion that without the ideological and military underpinnings of the pre-1945 so-called Drang Nach Osten, Germany's influence is less threatening to Eastern Europe and the world.