Polarization and the Development of Political Ideology in Germany

Abstract

In the formerly-socialist Central and Eastern European societies, the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ had an indeterminate meaning, but those nations have rapidly changed their political terminology and consciousness. The young are particularly sensitive to emerging lines of conflict forming in the process of democratization. Using data on eastern German (GDR) youth from just before and after the Wende (the evaporation of the old GDR state), we examine the meaning of ‘left’ and ‘right’ with respect to attitudes toward ‘values’, and racism/xenophobia. There is evidence that the left-right continuum absorbed the lines of conflict over foreigners and refugees. This is particularly pronounced for the population of young eastern Germans, but signs of the ‘ethnicization’ of ideology are also present among adult eastern and western Germans. High anomie (an indicator of threat and social insecurity) is associated with antiforeigner and ‘right’ ideology as well. Differences between eastern and western Germany confirm that the ‘targets’ of xenophobia in the east are more closely related to economic threat than in the west, but the background of xenophobia is clear in both regions. In general, the results point to an ‘ethnicization’ of ideological conflict in which perceived threat and competition from out-groups play a significant role.KeywordsAsylum SeekerPolitical CulturePolitical IdeologyPolitical SpectrumEconomic ThreatThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.