Parties, Opposition, and Society in West Germany by Eva Kolinsky

Author:Eva Kolinsky [Kolinsky, Eva]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History & Theory, Comparative Politics, Political Science, World, General
ISBN: 9780312597467
Google: anp0DwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 3567284
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 1984-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

Low

30

53

Medium

33

28

High

37

19

Source: M. Kent Jennings/Rolf Jansen, Die Jugendlichen in der Bundesrepublik, PVS 17, 1976, No. 3, p. 321.

Table 6.2: Self-Identification on a Left-Right Scale

Students 1979

Population 1979

%

18–29

%

30 and over

%

Left

60

27

17

Middle or neither nor

27

45

47

Right

10

22

30

No answer

3

6

6

Source: Wilhelm P. Bürklin, Links und/oder demokratisch? PVS 21, 1980, No. 3, p. 228.

Leaving aside the special problems related to students, the materials on political principles and political attitudes do not confirm the alarm signal, that large numbers of West Germany’s young are disinterested, disenchanted, detached from society and politics. Attitudes and self-identification suggest, on the contrary, that the young are more forceful democrats than their elders. They are less likely to confuse political change with instability.56 They are less likely to mistake economic prosperity and growth for the essence of democracy.57 They tend to score high on democratic principles and beliefs. The notion of disenchantment and disinterest does not appear to relate to the attitudes and beliefs. Here, democratic commitment seems to be high. Disenchantment may have a critical sting and relate to a discrepancy between these beliefs and experiences of social and political life. Disenchantment would then articulate the disappointment of democrats whose expectations and hopes were faulted.

Interest or Retreat: Some Recent Trends

Nothing as drastic as faulted hopes and pent-up disappointments shape the young generation as a whole. Overall young people seem to be as content with democracy as older ones. There are no staggering differences. An Emnid survey from 1980 for example, found 69% of the 18–30 year olds and 70% of the general population in agreement with democracy and its institutions.58 With 6%, open dissatisfaction among the young was marginally higher than average (3%). Slightly different results emerge from the material compiled by Veen and Hansen for the Konrad Adenauer Research Institute. They focussed on the age group 14 to 21 and further differentiated by education and social class. Dissatisfaction seemed to be more pronounced among the 18–21 year olds. With 10% of the young people in the survey stating they were dissatisfied with democracy, the negative fringe was clearly larger than in the broader study mentioned earlier (Table 6.3).

What is measured and meant when people say they are dissatisfied, is somewhat open and points at best to a general tendency, not a hard and fast fact of consolidated dissent. Other tendencies may be extracted from the Veen/Hansen comparison (Table 6.3). Dissatisfaction - whatever it might mean - appears to peak at the extremes, at the highest and the lowest levels of formal education and at the highest and the lowest social group. Those with basic schooling and those with further or higher education may take a negative stand. Young people classified as workers were similarly dissatisfied as those classified as upper strata, (Oberschicht). Dissatisfaction, it seems, peaks at the extremes of the social and educational divide. The notion of dissatisfaction and some of its possible meanings need to be explored further.

In the early seventies, young people seemed to be well integrated into their political environment. Electoral support for political parties, especially for the SPD was high.

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