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East German distinctive mentality in political culture of contemporary…
East German distinctive mentality in political culture of contemporary Germany
Socialisation legacy still around?
Social justice and wealth redistribution are considerably higher in the East than in the West. (p17 Dalton and Weldon)
Does this just mirror the economic problems in the regions?
No- as support for job provision policies etc was favoured much stronger by unemployed Easterners (73%) compared with only 55% of West employed. (D and W p19)
Not only shown in partisan Left supporters in the East, but also in CDU etc.
74% of Eastern CDU voters favoured government intervention to lower wealth gap, only 56% of Western CDU voters shared this view. p20)
Changing perceptions of the GDR
Now seen by the majority of Easterns as an Unrechtstaat (60% of Easterners said it was not a Rechtsstaat 2014)
Suggests the act of re-remebering the good things in the GDR has mostly subsided?
Life was not all that bad in the GDR only 30% agree now (allensbach)
But this is only changing slowly. In 2009 this figure was as high as 47%.
Majority of people in the East state that unification has been a success (61%). Only 24% state it is a failure, with 15% Undecided. (Allensbach)
This is progress considering that the number of people who said it was a failure rose from 32% in '93 to 42% in '04.
However- with only 60% of people arguing that unification was a success, that still leaves a lot of room for improvement.
Progress in terms of positive opinions of unification and negative opinion of the GDR.
BUT
Still big differences in terms of socio-economic issues.
If socio-ecomonic issues are not fixed, the ostalgic identity could outlive the transitional period- passing it on to the post-unification generation. (Hogwood 65)
Other issues remain based on perceptions of things such as socialism etc
Money can do a lot but not everything (Schroeder lecture) Mentalities are different because of division.
If the economic issues that effected the 1990s continue in the 21st century, the East German mentality of second-classness will survive. Also reenforces the positive identification with redistribution of wealth etc
Young people leaving etc Creates a cycle where young people leave due to lack of jobs, which in turn creates a system where there are less jobs being created because of a lack of workforce. (Rensmann p 279)
Economic problems such as unemployment leads of perception of injustice, which is why many people poorer people lurch either far left or far right. (Rensmann p276)