On the road to Weimar? The political economy of popular satisfaction with government and regime performance in Germany

The focus of this paper is on citizens' satisfaction with the German democratic political system. This paper presents an argument to the effect that the performance records of both the economy and the government in power have substantial impacts on the levels of popular satisfaction with the regime. This theoretical stance contradicts the cultural vision of democratic stability and its thesis that political culture, with its inertial qualities, provides stable moorings for a political system. The results presented here suggest that Reunification has taken its toll on the German political system. In the New Federal States satisfaction with the Federal Republic's political system remains very low and this dissatisfaction has spread into West Germany. Public satisfaction with the system in the West has sunk to its lowest level since data have been collected on this phenomenon. The sources of this are to be seen in both economic developments and government performance. Contrary to the culturalist vision of the Federal Republic's democracy, satisfaction with the political system in Western Germany is not a given; citizens modify their views on the system in light of both the government's and the economy's successes and failures. The dynamic is similar in the East. The economic strains of Reunification and the perception that the federal government is not making sufficient efforts to bring East German living standards up to those of the West have kept the population there from committing themselves to the system. While most East Germans now admit that it was not a mistake to have merged with the Federal Republic and accept its political model, little enthusiasm exists for that model or for the economic system linked to it.