An old saying in comparative politics claims that the history of happy countries is boring to read. If this is the case, then German politics and society should not be boring.

I was attracted to the study of German politics because it represents some of the best and worst parts of human history, and some of the most intriguing questions that we face as social scientists. For instance, for several decades social science research has focused on what is known as "the German question". This question really had three parts.

The first part began by discussing the positive accomplishments of Germany by the early twentieth century. Germany was the land of thinkers and writers. Berlin was home to dozens of Nobel Prize winning scientists, including Albert Einstein. German was the language of science. Berlin and Germany more broadly was a nation with a strong cultural tradition, and one of the more modern nations in Europe in many areas.

A modern, educated society allowed Hitler to gain absolute power, and then abuse that power. And in the end, most people ignored the signs that Hitler's final solution was being executed through the Holocaust. How could this happen in the land of Schiller, Goethe and Beethoven? We address this in the early chapters of this volume. We describe the processes that lead to the Third Reich, and the continuing legacy of this experience for contemporary German politics.

The second version of the German question arose in 1945, as Hitler's Reich was defeated and analysts asked what was to become of Germany. The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was created in 1949 and faced uncertain prospects at the start. The FRG inherited a very negative cultural and political legacy.

Authoritarian orientations supposedly ran deep in German politics and society; democracy lacked the historical tradition found in other West European nations. The new political institutions also were not solely the product of German efforts; they came from wartime defeat and were imposed by occupying powers.

The economy was in a shambles, and many people worried about their economic and physical well-being. Thus, political analysts often worried about the prospects for German democracy, and whether the Federal Republic would follow the same course as the Weimar Republic. ...

Read Politics in Germany by Russell Dalton Online

Politics in Germany, 2nd ed. was published by Scott-Foresman/Harper Collins. The volume went out of print in 2003 after the publisher was gobbled up by a larger publisher, but periodically chapters have been updated as part of my course on German Politics at UC Irvine. In short, this is a free online textbook on German politics--start reading for free!

This manuscript has several advantages over other available texts: More comprehensive than the most popular text on German politics

• Extensive reading list, key terms, and other chapter enhancements
• Hyperlinks to a glossary and external sources on German politics and society
• The online chapters are searchable for keywords and terms
• More recent information on German politics; you don't wait four years for information on the last election
• Embedded Links to YouTube videos on Germany
• Its free!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Russell Dalton is a professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine. His research and teaching focuses on the role of citizens in the political process, and how democracies can better address public preferences and the democratic ideal.

He has authored or edited more than twenty books and more than a 100 research articles. Dalton has been awarded the Developing Scholar Award by Florida State University, a Fulbright Research Fellowship, Scholar-in-Residence at the Barbra Streisand Center, German Marshall Fund Research Fellowship, the POSCO Fellowship at the East West Center, and the UCI Emeriti Award for Faculty Mentorship. He was founding director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at UC Irvine.

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