The Free Democratic Party in West German Politics

Abstract

HE CLASSIFICATION of states by multi-party, two-party and singleparty systems may become a fascinating numbers game, which, however, does not always correspond to current political realities. During the process of evolution from one system to another, there may be occasions when all attempts at categorization into one of the three traditional systems will be defied. The experience of Germany may serve to illustrate this problem. The movement from a multi-party system in the Empire and Weimar eras to a single-party system under Hitler and then to a multi-party system in the Federal Republic fits into the normative pattern of totalitarian governments producing major party convulsions in their rise and fall. But the recent trend from a multi-party to a two-party system puts the country into a state of animated suspension between the party systems. Hence it would be more correct to classify it as having a hybrid two and a half party system.1 The number of minor parties active on a national scale rules out, at the present time, the two-party categorization, but, on the other hand, their decreasing political importance rules out the multiparty categorization. This essay seeks to study the conditions and prospects of survival of minor parties in such a state of suspension, and will center its attention on the most important of them, the Free Democratic party. Of course, mere survival without playing an appreciable role in national politics may still be possible under a genuine two-party system on the AngloSaxon model. The Prohibition party in the United States and the Liberal party in Great Britain run candidates in national elections without much chance of participating in the political decision-making process. But West Germany is not yet confronted with a situation in which the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic party may expect to alternate in power without relying on coalition partners. At this moment the SPD cannot expect to match the unprecedented CDU feat of obtaining a majority vote in a federal election and of governing alone if it so desired. But then what guarantee exists that the CDU will be able to repeat this feat in a post-Adenauer era? Therefore both parties may have to seek out as ally the only minor party which has managed to survive their own electoral onslaught, the Free Democrat party, now in a somewhat battered condition.