Party Members and Party Voters in W. Germany

Abstract

Ever since the beginning of democratic institutions in Germany, the parties have tried to control access to the political market. They have not been without success in these efforts: in fact the trend toward a monopoly of access has continued in the Bonn Republic and is rarely challenged in current political life. The small minority of actively concerned citizens have little choice but to work through parties to gain political influence. Non-partisan organizations, such as business, labor, churches, do not officially challenge the monopoly of the parties. There is no constitutional or institutional arrangement to have groups represented in parliament. There is no collective membership or official affiliation either, as between the Trade Unions and the Labour Party in Britain, or between social religious associations and the post-war Catholic Party in Belgium, or between Farmers' Unions and Agrarian Parties in some Scandinavian countries. An influential position in one of the leading groups may of course be helpful in making a person known, useful or acceptable at times even indispensable for one of the parties. Unless the parties have an interest of their own in promoting a given person, however, an outsider is in a hopeless situation. This does not prevent some of these groups from being of crucial importance in the process of decision-making and opinion formation. The kind of pressure they exert is twofold: they not only policy in the interest of the groups they represent 1); they also influence their members in favor of the social values, the policies and the parties they are interested in. Parties are strong because they are the single most important institutions organized to acquire, share and use power. They are weak because they as institutions do not command a very large proportion of the population. They are forced to find ways and means by which they can secure wide-spread and continuous support. The party organization can neither contribute directly nor command indirectly such support. Only one out of thirty party voters is a party member; see the details in Table 1.