Pros and Cons of the Semi-Sovereign Democracy in the Germany - Literature review Example

What are the Pros and Cons of the Semi-Sovereign Democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany? Introduction Semi-sovereign democracy remains a distinct system of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Federal Republic rivalled the German Democratic Republic (abbreviated as GDR and also known as the East Germany) in the east along the ideological antagonism patterns of the Cold War for rather a long time period of time. However, in 1989, GDR dissolved in the Federal Republic and the present day Federal Republic of Germany has emerged as a significant power in the Central Europe with its own political line. This paper is aimed at evaluating the pros and cons of the semi-sovereign democracy in the contemporary German context. German semi-sovereignty has several unique features, one being the excessive role of the foreign policy imperatives of the country inside its socio-political and economic environment. The evaluation is primarily based on literature review. The literature research scrutinizes the evolution of the Federal Republic and implementation of semi-sovereignty in this country. In the next section, the benefits of semi-sovereign democracy are discussed followed by another section analysing its drawbacks. Some of the main focus areas are unification of Germany, political and economic structures of the country, foreign policy, anti-militarism and power politics. The paper culminates at a suitable conclusion. Literature Review The review of the available scholarly literature is mainly based on the evaluation of the experts in West European studies and allied subjects drawing texts, online educational contents and journal articles from various disciplines like political science, economics, sociology, history, international relations, etc. This holistic literature research is necessary to understand the concept of semi-sovereignty in the context of the Federal Republic of Germany. There are serious historic grounds of semi-sovereignty in Germany, and even the post-unification Federal Republic is continuously labouring to build confidence across Europe, particularly in the erstwhile Eastern Bloc countries and Russian Federation. Evolution of the Federal Republic of Germany After the end of World War II, the German situation was complex, so much so that it emerged as the German Question that played a key role in escalating the Cold War. (Turk, 1999) There were three major aspects of this complexity. Firstly, the country was divided into four administrative sectors between UK, US, France and USSR. Secondly, polarisation of global political and economical systems led to the amalgamation of the UK, US and French administered sectors (which became the West Germany); while the Soviet administered sector became a Soviet politico-military and socio-economic satellite state (which became the East Germany). Thirdly, and most importantly, the divided city of Berlin became a major epicentre of the Cold War. Berlin War: The division of Berlin has been achieved by the construction of the Berlin Wall. The structure divided the city such that the UK, US and French administered enclaves of the city got encased within the East German territory. According to the experts at Foothill College (2011): “It was the duty of the border troops to prevent East Germans from crossing the border to the West. The border troops, like all armed forces in the GDR, were under the order of the Schußwaffenanwendungsordnung (use of fire-arms regulation) which spelled out when and under which circumstances to use fire power. Before using a gun, a border guard had to call and order the fugitive to stop. If this step failed, the border guard was to fire a warning shot in the air. If the fugitive subsequently did not stop, the border guard was to use all means to prevent the border crossing.” Further, in accordance with the Western sources on Berlin Wall, around 118 people had been injured by the border shootings; 80 people had been killed (an additional 720 fatalities took place across the German-German border between 1949 and1989). 3,221 inhabitants of GDR were unsuccessful in crossing Berlin Wall and they were all arrested. 5,043 Mauerbrecher (wall crossers) had been successful in getting into West-Berlin. (Foothill College, 2011) However, these Soviet policies in Berlin were contradictory to the identity of the Soviet satellite state itself. Officially, East Germany was called German Democratic Republic or GDR. And according to the basic theories of public administration and politics, no democracy can prosecute its citizens to such extents as witnessed in GDR. Automatically this led to an identity cum system related crisis in this country. In the meanwhile (i.e. during 1949-1989), the four administrative sectors in the west had been organized into West Germany, officially called the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG. Thus the Federal Republic had already gone through a process of unification which was finally accomplished by the Fall of Berlin Wall and the dissolution of GDR in the federal system of West Germany. Hence evolution of the Federal Republic becomes a broader European development which followed capitalist democracy. In the words of Paterson (2010, p. 41): “The narrative of Germany's European vocation falls into three stages. In the first stage – constituting Germany in Europe – European integration was a vital secondary arena for ensuring that the Federal Republic was able to develop economically, and to become a stable democracy. The second stage, of ever closer union accompanied by institutional export, was already evident under Helmut Schmidt, but became really manifest during the Kohl Chancellorship, reaching a high point in the early 1990s. In the post-Kohl third stage the European vocation persists, but has been very much scaled back.” Semi-Sovereignty and the Federal Republic According to Paterson (2005, p. 41), there is “an indissoluble association between the old Federal Republic Federal Republic and semisovereignty.” In German context, semi-sovereignty appears to have two prominent dimensions. One is external, and the other is internal. Crawford (2009) has impressively elucidated the external dimension of this semi-sovereignty. “For most international relations theorists and foreign policy observers, this is either the vision of a weak state or a paradigm shift in the international aims of a powerful one. For Germany, it began as the former and has now become the latter. Devised as a pragmatic international strategy for a defeated state, this Weltanschauung1 has become a sincere commitment that has been stamped deeply into the decision-making system of every German foreign ministry since the founding of the Federal Republic.” (Crawford 2009, p. 1) It is really undeniable to the modern researchers that the defeat in World War II left Germany at the generosity of the victorious powers rather than its right to full sovereignty. Thus semi-sovereignty became an unavoidable consequence for both the Federal Republic and GDR. Describing the internal dimension of semi-sovereign democracy in the Federal Republic, Paterson mentions about the “internal constraints, many of them self-imposed, that limited the sovereignty of the West German state” (Paterson, 2005, p. 261). These internal constraints have actually been created by the formation of an administrative complex. According to Schmidt (2003), this administrative complex depends on how the political institutions work and the relationship between these institutions and the political processes, including the legislature. The main thesis presents the Federal Republic (both in the pre and post unification scenarios) as a large coalition entity where serious policy changes are rather not possible since the number of veto players at the autonomous level inside the federation is excessively high. (Schmidt, 2003) Moreover, semi-sovereign democracy in Germany is featured by a number of economic issues that have leveraged high degree of socio-political importance. According to Pulzer (1995, p. 145), “Buffeted by the oil shock, challenged by the New Left's rejection of the post-war consensus, undermined by terrorism, and divided by the measures to combat it, the FRG of the Schmidt period might well have seemed on the verge of destabilization. It certainly became more difficult to govern, though the talk then current of 'governmental overload' and 'ungovernability' seems in retrospect greatly exaggerated. What is true is that from the early 1970s onwards West German governments not only faced more complex policy challenges, but met greater institutional obstacles.” Further, integration in European Union has added new features to Germany’s already existing semi-sovereignty. “After 1990, Germany could have taken a more self-interested path—as Britain did—with regard to European integration. But German leaders chose to integrate more deeply into Europe and to underwrite the integration process. Of course Germany does not always agree with the means its partners have chosen to solve collective problems, and will attempt to steer collective decision-making in directions that its leaders prefer. But disagreement on means does not mean rejection of cooperative ends.” (Crawford, 2009, p. 11) However, the semi-sovereign democracy in the country has bestowed it with a gradual upheaval in the international political arena. This upheaval is controversial, and a constructive debate over the German foreign policy of today should be conducted as per the different international relations and foreign policy theories. (Hellmann, 2009) Contextually, Otte and Grewe (2000) have identified the Federal Republic as a rising power in Central Europe capable of exploiting global power politics and its complexities. In the terms of economic development, experts like Kindelberger (1981) had expressed their anxiety regarding market economy and related exploitative order in the country as early as the late 1970s. Yet, constructive performance of unified Germany in both domestic and international scenarios has been widely appreciated. Particularly in the terms of key issues of contention like anti-militarism and export control, German policy makers of the 21st century have attracted considerable international admiration and confidence. (Berger, 1998; Miller et al, 1994) Benefits of Semi-Sovereign Democracy Semi-sovereign democracy has several positive characteristics. In the Federal Republic, semi-sovereignty matured with the lapse of time. Pulzer (1995) has described the period from 1945 to 1989 as the maturation phase of the semi-sovereign democratic system. Over this long period of time, the benefits of semi-sovereignty became clearly discernable in the German context. Inquiry into the Politics The positive aspects of semi-sovereign democracy can be better understood from Katzenstein’s (2005) perspective of united Germany that ushered under the auspices of the Federal Republic and annihilated the repressive regime of GDR. “The arguments of both critics and admirers point to the political relevance and importance of an inquiry into the politics of semi-sovereignty in united Germany.” (Katzenstein, 2005, p. 284) Now this recognition of inquiry into politics is itself an appreciable aspect of German semi-sovereignty. Political inquiry was almost never allowed in Pre-War and Inter-War Germany. During the days of Holy Roman Empire, the theocracy was undisputed in this part of the world. After the Napoleonic Wars, Germany began to emerge as an utmost imperialist monarchy as the two major powers, Bavaria and Prussia formed a communion. This monarchy under the legion of Kaisers exhibited extravagant despotic behaviour. Imperial ambitions culminated into Crimean War and World War I. After World War I, a bitter struggle between the right wing and left wing political forces ensued, which ultimately led to the devastating consequences of World War II. (Turk, 1999) Hence, denial to political inquiry gave nothing to this country except repeated warfare and widespread destruction. Unlike the pre-existent systems, the Federal Republic followed an approach of relative political liberalism. Although NATO deployments hampered its right to full sovereignty in stricter parameters, the policy makers of the Federal Republic erected a complex system of internal constraints. These constraints were politically motivated against both Fascism and Communism; but they ultimately played a constructive role. Power of the Chancellors In this way, the most positive feature of the semi-sovereign democracy is described by Clemens and Paterson (1998, p. 17) in the following words, “Internal semi-sovereignty acts to constrain German chancellors in domestic politics, while the Richtlinienkompetenz2 and Adenauer legacy in the public mind presuppose a chancellor who determines the guidelines of policy.” Consequently, German chancellors and high level strategists have responded by taking up a discerning interest in European policies and foreign relations. This prevented the re-emergence of an aggressive power and earned mutual confidence from the neighbours who eventually helped to achieve improved trade and commerce. The restraints in foreign policy vision remain less pressing and articulate a process that is internally mobile and externally legitimate. Semi-Sovereignty and Unification It cannot be denied that German semi-sovereignty is very complex. During the Cold War, it involved international restrictions and excessive NATO (or more precisely, US) interference. Moreover, internal constraints continuously shaped the public administration of the country. Even in economic terms, political inquiry restricted corporate profiteering in both the public and private sectors. Semi-sovereign democracy in post-unification Germany helped the policy makers to overcome the socio-economic problems arising from unification in almost an automated manner. “By the late 1990s, at the latest, in the Bündnis für Arbeit, or Alliance for Jobs, of the Schröder government, the decay of Modell Deutshland became visible in a lasting political deadlock over labour market reform” (Streeck, 2005, p. 141). Hence the country witnessed the rise of welfare corporatism. Corporate entities took the form of responsible self-governing groups powered by result orientation. Streeck has termed the process as “economic semisovereignty” (Streeck, 2005, p. 141) which has two major characteristics. Firstly, pursuit of special group interests from the relatively underdeveloped eastern provinces became predominant and an economic rehabilitation process became forceful. Secondly, the federal government exercised less control over the money supply. Although populist temptations of Keynesian economics existed all the time, the Federal Republic managed to maintain a dominant industry-friendly position which ultimately helped the working class. Thus, the Federal Republic can be regarded as an illustrious capitalist democracy too, which stretched the basic theory of political semi-sovereignty up to the economic entities of the country, indiscriminately spanning over both the public and private sector corporate bodies. Although these policies have not been effective to eradicate the 21st century menaces like Neo-Nazism and Jihad-related propaganda completely, they have curbed and controlled them in a civilised, peaceful and less controversial way. The Public Administration Network and Foreign Policy Finally, Green and Paterson (2005) have noted that there are three focal points of the public administration network in the Federal Republic: “political parties, federalism and parapublic institutions.” (Green and Paterson 2005, p. 4) These three kinds of socio-political establishments remain involved in a continued political debate that redefines semi-sovereignty from time to time. This infuses political mobility in the system of the country which gives rise to newer dimensions with the lapse of time. This has added dynamic behaviour to the country’s policies, and special reference to the foreign policies has become mandatory. Since Germany had been involved in several power struggles with its neighbours, its foreign policy has become crucial in determining its internal environment. Most of the European colonial powers had erected colonies in Asia and Africa, but Germany had colonised many of its neighbours. Hence confidence restoration is still underway due to the bitter memories of the World Wars. Consequently, the leaders of the country are coming up with a peaceful foreign policy with a lot of dependence on internal public consensus and several dynamic ideologies. Risse (2004, p. 24) has attempted to define these dynamics as “Eine ‘neue’ deutsche Auβenpolitik”3, which puts emphasis on the new identity of the post-unification Germany. This can be regarded as another important achievement of the semi-sovereign democracy. Drawbacks of Semi-Sovereign Democracy Over the long period of pre-unification days, the semi-sovereignty of the Federal Republic developed in a dynamic way and its certain drawbacks became discernable. Some new complications also emerged after the unification and issues like the expansion of NATO towards eastern hemisphere appear to be contradictory to German anti-militarism which is attributed to its semi-sovereign democracy. Excessive Anti-Militarism The semi-sovereign democracy has a restrictive nature in itself. The internal public consensus is so powerful that the body politick of the Federal Republic may appear to be adopting unsuitable policies in the realm of international diplomacy and practices. Semi-sovereignty has resulted into excessive anti-militarism. “After 1989 Germany had the option to shed the role of the honest broker and assert unilateral self-interest as it had had done in the beginning of the 20th century. But German leaders from Kohl to Merkel have taken the path consistent with its vision of diplomacy, and provided leadership in international negotiations. Allies and critics have called on Germany to drop its restrictive rules of combat in Afghanistan, but Germany has refused to do so.” (Crawford, 2009, p. 11) Moreover, the Federal Republic has manifested itself in the form of a “normal state” (Crawford, 2009, p. 1). The question is: To what extent an anti-militarist normal state can safeguard human rights as per its global obligations? The broader picture of the scenario shows that Germany has become practically inert towards the cases of human rights violation particularly when international military intervention becomes an imperative. Germany’s role in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, etc. has been under strict restriction of the normative roles the country has imposed on itself. The country does not appear to be behaving like a realistic state since internal semi-sovereignty and pluralistic institutional structure significantly undermine the coherent nature of the Federal Republic’s military role both inside and outside its political boundaries. (Paterson, 2005) Party Politics in the Semi-Sovereign Democracy The multi-party system of the country too has some peculiar aspects. The constitution assigns several responsibilities to the political parties of the country. However, excessive federalism provides too much to the provincial units of these political parties, due to which it is difficult to find out a centralised structure in any political bloc. But the political parties have managed their way to a sort of informal or unofficial power. They claim to be mass organisations and tend to call themselves Volksparteien, meaning people’s parties. Strangely enough, this did not compensate the institutional pluralism with political pluralism in true effect. Hence the country has rapidly evolved as a bi-party system. These parties are the Social Democratic SPD and Christian Democratic CDU/CSU. Both the parties have broad electoral bases. (Green and Paterson, 2005) This situation may appear to be a healthy democracy, but the internal semi-sovereignty does not leave the scenario so simple. Firstly, there is an alarming tendency among the people to once again segregate under right wing and left wing establishment. Although mainstream Christian Democrats and Social Democrats can be regarded as centre-right and centre-left forces respectively, existence of DKP (German Democratic Party) and the Neo-Nazis does not give outright optimistic indications. Secondly, being mass organisation has given the mainstream political parties a lot of informal power. It is difficult to ascertain in the Federal Republic today that to what powers the politicians are legitimately entitled and what other powers the people are willing to provide them with. Economy of the Semi-Sovereign Democracy In the economic front, some experts have appreciated the idea of “economic sovereignty” (Streeck, 2005, p. 141). The success of this economic model is generally accepted by the political and economic analysts since it is believed that the basic economic policies of the Federal Republic, which are along the lines of capitalism, have helped the Post-War reconstruction of the country in a phenomenal way. The current economic problems of unified Germany should, in their opinion, be attributed to the process of integrating the territories and population of erstwhile GDR. It is generally believed that due to the economic pressure created by the integration of the East German territories into the Federal Republic, the present day German economy is on the verge of stagnancy and even negative growth. However, Green and Paterson (2005) have challenged this view. According to them, most of the Federal Republic’s economic and structural problems are pre-date unification. The economic growth in West Germany had already plummeted during the mid 1970s. The slowdown was due to a shrinking consumer market and demographic problems. Fall in birth rates had been a problem in the early 1980s. The process of unification has in no way adversely affected the number of young energetic professionals in the country today, various lifestyle and family management problems have actually led to the shrinkage of the youth population. As a matter of fact, slow economic growth and overproduction were some of the chronic problems that surfaced as early as the 1970s. Hence, economic aspects of the semi-sovereign democracy are not as good as they generally appear to be. NATO Expansion Vis-à-vis German Political Tactics Last but not least, the Russo-German relations stand out as an anomaly with respect to the general trends of the German foreign policy. Officially, Germany asserts itself as a central power which is anti-militaristic. But in practice, the situation becomes complicated when it comes to the Russian allegations. According to Russia, which is the successor state of erstwhile USSR, claims that Germany is augmenting NATO in an unfair way. The Federal Republic continues to be a powerful NATO member even after its unification with GDR and withdrawal of the Soviet Russian forces. Moreover, NATO troops are being deployed in the erstwhile GDR territories. Russia resents this eastward expansion of NATO. Presence of NATO military forces in East Europe and particularly in the erstwhile East Germany can be regarded as a huge diplomatic failure on the part of Russia. (Hyde-Price, 2000) Most interestingly, the Federal Republic’s leadership does not appear to be taking concrete steps to address this problem regarding Russia’s security concerns. In future, this strange behaviour of the semi-sovereign democracy in the Federal Republic may further escalate tensions between NATO and Russia. Thus, politico-ethnic convictions of the German leadership cannot be completely overruled. Ultimately, semi-sovereignty appears to have failed to prevent the Federal Republic from entering in a new sort of power politics over East Europe. Conclusion Generally it is though that with the collapse of Berlin Wall and subsequent unification an altogether new German state emerged. Such a perspective may have some limited technical implication, but the philosophical truth behind the emergence of unified Germany is not so simple. Actually, the Federal Republic of Germany had policies designed to suite the aspirations of the general German people. The communist GDR was an authoritarian state. Germans had experienced the valueless extravaganza of the earlier authoritarian regimes and they knew that authoritarianism could bring only sufferings and destruction. Hence when the Federal Republic provided them with the semi-sovereign democratic system, German identity was remodelled rather than reconstructed. Semi-sovereignty eventually provided the country the unity and peace it needed, although the process took almost fifty years to accomplish officially. Practically, semi-sovereignty is being tested by the people of the country even today. In such a state of affair, the course of semi-sovereign democracy in Germany should not be determined by power politics but people’s politics. European integration has undermined the importance of military strength and empowered Germany’s stature as an economic giant. Although the policy makers are often practicing too much anti-militarism or excessive power politics, people of Germany are expected to redefine semi-sovereign democracy in a realistic and beneficial way. List of References Berger, T. (1998). Cultures of Anti-Militarism: National Security in Germany and Japan. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. Clemens, C., & Paterson, W. (1998). The Kohl Chancellorship. London: Routledge. Crawford, B. (2005). The normative power of a normal state: Power and revolutionary vision of Germany’s Post-Wall foreign policy. In: Center for West European Studies, Legacies of German Unification: Twenty Years of German Unity. Washington D.C., USA, November 2009. Washington D.C.: University of Washington. Foothill College. (2011) German Unification Case Study - The Berlin Wall. Available: http://www.foothill.fhda.edu/divisions/unification/wall.html. Last accessed 24 February, 2012. Green, S. and Paterson, W.E. (2005). 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