The Re-Emergence of the Cadre Party?

Abstract

Since unification of the two German states and of the sister organizations of the major German political parties, the SPD and the CDU, party organizers in eastern Germany have been engaged in (re)building their extra-parliamentary organization into efficient and organizationally strong political agencies. The formally equal political environment since unification and also a massive transfer of material and non-material resources from western sister organizations have created conditions conducive to adjustment of the internal structures between East and West German parties. Based on empirical data from more than 140 local branches and 25 Land associations I compare major organizational characteristics of the parties in an East-West perspective. After an analysis of the development of the party organizations since unification, I describe the type of party organization that has emerged in eastern Germany in the course of the political and societal transformation. I argue that in spite of formally equal political conditions in unified Germany, the East German parties differ so much in organizational structure from their western sisters that they resemble much more the so-called `cadre party', whereas the western parties still represent people's parties.