EJ groups succeed by building power outside formal decision-making structures

Evidence

Adenauer distrusted most people, including the Germans as a Volk, and preferred to make important decisions, particularly those involving foreign policy, either alone or in a very small circle of close advisors. As a consequence, the expellee leaders never received access to the inner sanctums of power, either within the CDU/CSU or the federal government. The Ministry for Expellee Affairs, for example, remained marginalized, and the expellee activists also failed to gain a foothold in the Foreign Office, which was hardly surprising, given Foreign Minister Brentano’s contempt for their “emotional reactions.” A good indication of the expellee organizations’ lack of active influence was their inability to secure major governmental support for the extensive public relations work in the West—particularly the United States—which they kept planning with high expectations throughout the 1950s. — Pertti Ahonen, Domestic Constraints on West German…, 177 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Legal remedies consistently fail to aid communities in environmental justice struggles; Participation itself changes participants’ self-conceptions before any external victory; EJ activism shifts from facility opposition to contesting decision-making legitimacy (+4 more)

Related

• Adenauer’s isolated decision-making excluded expellee organizations from real power (similarity 0.87)
• Adenauer’s long tenure institutionalized expellee groups as de facto veto holders. (similarity 0.79)
• Expellee organizations claimed a veto role over East policy. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Adenauer’s isolated decision-making excluded expellee organizations from real power #exemplifies (0.75) — Pertti Ahonen, Domestic Constraints on West German…, 177
• Organizations are not merely the extended arm of a power-holder #expands (0.75)
• EJ advocates lack the power base to win without fusing movements #qualifies (0.70)