Postwar German elections were degraded into mere customer-touting
Evidence
According to this analysis, the contemporary period was at a cross-roads between manipulative politicization and genuine politicization, between an authoritarian welfare state and substantive democracy. According to the widespread interpretation of the Federal Republic’s Basic Law, citizens were assured personal protection and personal freedom through an extensive catalogue of fundamental, liberal rightsbut legally the people had no means to express its will definitively on any specific issue. The only opportunity to participate in politics at the federal level was in the elections to the Bundestag. But the Bundestag had lost power to the executive, to the bureaucracy, and to political parties influenced by various lobbying organizations and groups with vested interests. The ineffectiveness of the elections was therefore obvious, and they had been degraded by the techniques of electoral campaigning into a mere touting for customers. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2339
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes Horkheimer’s claim that the era marked itself by currency reform and mass manipulation rather than liberation (ch66). — connects to: Post-Nazi Germany needed fifty years of resocialization to acquire liberal political culture — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 24; Postwar party democracy was authoritarian, patriarchal, and corrupt despite nostalgia — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics: Extreme Politicization…, 127; The 1948 German state was legitimated via the free market mechanism — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 676 (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Post-Nazi Germany needed fifty years of resocialization to acquire liberal political culture
#expands(0.75) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 24 - Postwar party democracy was authoritarian, patriarchal, and corrupt despite nostalgia
#corroborates(0.72) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 127 - The 1948 German state was legitimated via the free market mechanism
#corroborates(0.72) — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics, 676