The Legacy and Impact of German Unification

On October 3, 1990 the future of both Europe and Germany became powerfully and inexorably intertwined across a politically broadened continent powering transformative social, political and economic interactions. The thirty year mark after the then reigning chancellor Helmut Kohl promised 'flourishing landscapes' in the former GDR is more than just a new anniversary from which mandatory reflections must follow. Arguably, it represents a temporal boundary between the adjustments and reactions conditioned and captivated by a sense of something new and uncertain, and that point moving forward from which unification's legacy inescapably tethers Germany's future to normal politics shaped by the issues of the moment, and not politics gripped by the debates of unification itself. That legacy is defined by an accumulation over thirty years of adjustments, mutations, counter-adjustments and strategic reactions which have now delivered through the many ripples of change a Germany managing thecourse-trajectory which unification has relentlessly plotted. The foreseeable future will certainly see that legacy of unification tenaciously continue to project yet shrouded within the background of Germany's routine politics. This volume explores that legacy within the post-unification era and reflects on the way forward into a near-term German future no longer consumed with unification itself but with the reality of politics it has steadily defined.

Offers important insights into the coming transition from the Merkel Era of German politics to that of her successors Reflects on changes which have taken root and developed their own momentum three decades on from Germany's unification Draws upon a broad array of senior and prominent scholars of the German political system

Auteur
Michael Oswald is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Passau, Germany, Research Associate at the John F. Kennedy Institute, Free University of Berlin, Germany, Faculty at the Institute of European and International Studies (CIFE), France, and the author of The Palgrave Handbook of Populism (2021).

John Robertson is Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University, USA. He is the author and co-author of numerous articles dealing with European affairs and comparative politics published in leading political science journals, including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Comparative Politics, German Politics, International Political Science Review, and International Studies Quarterly.

Contenu
Chapter 1: Three Decades of Flourishing Landscapes: An Introduction to German Unification and the Challenge of Managing Its Legacy into the Next Decade.- Chapter 2: Continuity and Change in the Office of German Chancellor.- Chapter 3: The German Party System Since 1990: From Incorporation to Fragmentation.- Chapter 4: The Resurgence and Decline of the Social Democratic Party in the Berlin Republic (19902020).- Chapter 5: Fighting Against the Decline. Concepts of Modernization of the Conservative "Volksparteien" in Germany.- Chapter 6: Post-Communism in a United Germany: Die Linke.- Chapter 7: Alliance 90/The Greens: A Left Party with A Centrist Appeal in Coalition Politics.- Chapter 8: The Right-Wing Populist Disruption in the Berlin Republic. Opportunity Structures and Success of the Alternative for Germany (AfD).- Chapter 9: The Reluctant Modernizer: Gender Equality in Unified Germany.- Chapter 10: The Götterdämmerung of the Nation Brand: German Identity after 30 years of Unification.- Chapter 11: Germany is a Disaster Now: US Perspectives on the Berlin Republic Over the Course of Time.- Chapter 12: The Changing Faces of Germany's Social Market Economy.- Chapter 13: European Divergences: Germany, France and Italy in Global Economic Governance.- Chapter 14: France, Germany and European Security: Building Castles in the Sky?.- Chapter 15: Frozen in Trump's headlights Germany's astounding foreign policy of obstinacy