The ‘Old’ and the ‘New’ Federalism in Germany

Abstract

When the Wall came down on November 9, 1989 the two Germanies had dramatically different political systems. The most obvious of the differences could be found in the political party, administrative, and judicial systems and their ideological underpinnings as well as the contrasts these reflected in virtually all areas of public policy. Another major difference lay in the territorial-administrative organisation of the two states, that is, in the federal organisation of the West German Federal Republic and the unitary structures of the East German Democratic Republic (GDR). This difference was not in principle the direct result of the democratic-capitalist system in the West and the communist-dominated party dictatorship in the East. Most democratic systems are also unitary states, and, at least in theory if not in practice, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were federal states under communist party leadership.