Suchergebnisse

East Germany's transition, while exceptionally swift, efficient, & thorough (as well as facilitated by integration into the FRG), nonetheless presents a useful model for the transitions of other postcommunist states & indeed, for the integration of Eastern European countries with Western Europe. The article explicates three pertinent consequences of East Germany's transition that may prove instructive for East-West European integration: (1) the revitalization of Eastern identity due to Western pressures to conform politically & culturally; (2) renewed identification of the postcommunist party with distinctly Eastern values & interests; & (3) a resurgence of regional diversity. The East German transition demonstrates the temporal lag between institutional change & broad democratization, with the pace of cultural change influenced by the degree of confidence gained through experience with the new institutional mechanisms. EU integration policy should attend carefully to the complexities of sociocultural adaptation & not harbor expectations of a tidy transposition of Western institutions & values onto the East; the goal should be integration rather than assimilation. 2 Tables. K. Coddon

In the decade since German unification, there has been a tendency by scholars and politicians alike to frame discussions of this event in terms of west-east or old states-new states, treating the five new states of Germany as one homogeneous entity. Moreover, the underlying assumption of many such studies is that the goal of political development is convergence, whereby the east catches up to or emulates the west in terms of economic prosperity, values, and levels of political participation. Unification, in other words, should lead to uniformity in institutional as well as political-cultural terms. Indeed, in its stated goal of striving for "Einheitlichkeit der Lebensverhältnisse" (uniformity of living conditions), the Grundgesetz provides some basis for expecting relative uniformity. Although a decade is not a long time, it is enough time to move beyond assumptions of uniformity and consider that unification has resulted in greater diversity in German politics and society.