The Evolution of Electoral Technologies in Germany and the Bundestag Elections of 1998

Abstract

The subject of the study is the federal election campaigns of the main competitors in the German Bundestag elections of 1998 - the CDU and the SPD. The object of the study is the evolution of German political culture related to the practice of conducting federal election campaigns. The purpose of this work is to analyze the election campaigns of the CDU and the SPD in 1998 to identify new elements of the professionalized, "Americanized", modernized campaign of the SPD, which, against the background of the traditional CDU campaign, contributed to the victory of the Social Democrats and the coming to power in Germany of the "red-green" coalition led by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The scientific novelty of the article is that the effectiveness of election campaigns is considered as one of the significant factors influencing the outcome of the party-political struggle, and the 1998 elections are considered as one of the turning points in the evolution of German political culture in terms of party election campaigns. The successful SPD campaign, which abandoned many traditional elements and actively borrowed new electoral practices from the United States and Great Britain, had a significant impact on the modernization of the forms and methods of electoral struggle of the main parties in Germany in the next two decades.