Local Government and Politics in East Germany

In: German politics: Journal of the Association for the Study of German Politics, Band 11, Heft 3, S. 153-178

Abstract

This study begins with an examination of the secular institutional transformation of East Germany's local government since the early 1990s following the collapse of the communist regime & during the process of German unification. In its spectacular mix of institutional demolition & reconstruction this transformation bore many traces of what Joseph Schumpeter has called 'creative destruction.' The article addresses the 'performance' of the newly created political & administrative structures of local government a decade after transformation. It argues that the performance of East Germany's institutions & actors has attained the 'normalcy' of West German administrative practice remarkably rapidly. Finally, East Germany's institutional development is considered within a comparative perspective, focusing on other Central & East European countries, particularly Poland & Hungary. 5 Tables. Adapted from the source document.