Germany’s Post-Reunification Effort to Achieve National Reconciliation: Muddling Through,Routinization, and Policy Failure
0
조회
0
다운로드
0
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
This article reexamines the track record of German unification after three decades. The focus is placed on economic issues, while cultural, social, and geopolitical dimensions are dealt with more briefly. Following the introduction, Section II briefly examines the history of Germany’s national division and the East German political events in late 1989 and early 1990 that produced the unification of the two Germanies on 3 October 1990. Sections III to V subsequently discuss the major political and economic events during the Kohl, Schröder, and Merkel Chancellorships, respectively. Section III focuses on the high political and social costs of the initial economic disruption in the East due to the near single-minded focus on the rapid privatization of the former GDR enterprises. In Section IV, the negative feedback of the economic shock is discussed, namely high unemployment, the fiscal crisis of the welfare state, and the demographic collapse in the East. Section V sketches how the Great Recession of 2007-2008, the subsequent Euro currency, and the southern EU states’ debt crises collectively crowded out the topic of intra-German reconciliation. The emerging overall picture advanced in Section VI is that a combination of muddling through, routinization (here also termed as “reconciliation by accident”), and policy failure most adequately describes the outcome of Germany ’s unification experience. Finally, Section VII puts forward some policy suggestions for Korean audiences deriving from the German case. It is argued that the geopolitical situation of the two Koreas is fundamentally different. Thus, South Korea ’s main focus must be placed on patient inter-Korean engagement, focusing on conflict prevention while also engaging with all relevant external stakeholders.
Abstract
This article reexamines the track record of German unification after three decades. The focus is placed on economic issues, while cultural, social, and geopolitical dimensions are dealt with more briefly. Following the introduction, Section II briefly examines the history of Germany’s national division and the East German political events in late 1989 and early 1990 that produced the unification of the two Germanies on 3 October 1990. Sections III to V subsequently discuss the major political and economic events during the Kohl, Schröder, and Merkel Chancellorships, respectively. Section III focuses on the high political and social costs of the initial economic disruption in the East due to the near single-minded focus on the rapid privatization of the former GDR enterprises. In Section IV, the negative feedback of the economic shock is discussed, namely high unemployment, the fiscal crisis of the welfare state, and the demographic collapse in the East. Section V sketches how the Great Recession of 2007-2008, the subsequent Euro currency, and the southern EU states’ debt crises collectively crowded out the topic of intra-German reconciliation. The emerging overall picture advanced in Section VI is that a combination of muddling through, routinization (here also termed as “reconciliation by accident”), and policy failure most adequately describes the outcome of Germany ’s unification experience. Finally, Section VII puts forward some policy suggestions for Korean audiences deriving from the German case. It is argued that the geopolitical situation of the two Koreas is fundamentally different. Thus, South Korea ’s main focus must be placed on patient inter-Korean engagement, focusing on conflict prevention while also engaging with all relevant external stakeholders.
참고문헌 (36)
- "Arbeitsgruppe “Neue Verfassung der DDR” des Runden Tisches. “Entwurf Verfassung der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik”" (1990)[URL]
- "Wandel durch Annäherung" (1963)[URL]
- "East-West Exodus: The Millions Who Left" (2019)[URL]
- "Movie by Dirk Schneider for “Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk” (MDR)" (2018)[URL]
- "Wächst die Kluft zwischen den Regionen?" (2019)[URL]
- "Über Postdemokratie und kulturelle Kolonisierung" (2019)[URL]
- "Kurze Geschichte der Euro-Rettung" (2011)[URL]
- "Vertrauen in Demokratie. Wie zufrieden sind die Menschen in Deutschland mit Regierung, Staat und Politik?" (2019)[URL]
- "Ist die AfD in ländlichen Räumen besonders erfolgreich?" (2019)[URL]
- "Für unser Land" (1989)[URL]
- Dostal, Jörg Michael, "From ‘Moderniser’ to ‘Traditionalist’: Oskar Lafontaine and German Social Democracy in the 1990s", Debatte: Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, 8(1), pp.23~37 (2000)
- Dostal, Jörg Michael, "The German Federal Election of 2017: How the Wedge Issue of Refugees and Migration Took the Shine of Chancellor Merkel and Transformed the Party System", The Political Quarterly, 88(4), pp.589~602 (2017)
- "Two Koreas, one Germany: Is the German Unification Experience becoming more relevant for today’s Koreas?" (2018)[URL]
- Engler, Wolfgang, "Die Ostdeutschen als Avantgarde" (2000), Aufbau Verlag
- "Bestandsaufnahme Ostdeutscher Eliten 2017" (2017)[URL]
- Goedicke, Anne, "Fachexperten und Leitungskader: Karrieren von Angehörigen der oberen Dienstklasse der DDR nach der Wende", Historical Social Research, 28(1, pp.2) (2003), 247~269
- Habermas, Jürgen, "Die nachholende Revolution" (1990), Suhrkamp
- Hall, Peter A., "Policy Paradigms, Social Learning and the State: The Case of Economic Policymaking in Britain", Comparative Politics, 25(3), pp.275~296 (1993)
- Jörs, Inka, "Postsozialistische Parteien: Polnische SLD und ostdeutsche PDS im Vergleich" (2006), Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften
- Keβler, Mario, "DDR Historiker – Akteure und Chronisten", Das Blättchen, 22(18) (2019)
- "Evaluation der Förderinitiative Innovative regionale Wachstumskerne im Rahmen der BMBF-Innovationsinitiative für die Neuen Länder ‘Unternehmen Region,’" (2016)[URL]
- "20 Jahre Wiedervereinigung: Wie weit Ost- und Westdeutschland zusammengerückt sind" (2010)[URL]
- Lee, Jong-Wha, "Korean Unification: Economic Adjustments under German Assumptions", Asian Economic Policy Review, 14(2), pp.262~281 (2019)
- "Historiker über die Treuhand: Es gab Proteste, Streiks, Drohbriefe" (2018)[URL]
- 90: TATBESTÄNDE, "Entkoppelte Gesellschaft –Ostdeutschland seit 1989", pp.2019, Milev, Yana
- Naipaul, V. S., "A Bend in the River" (1979), Vintage Books
- Pannen, Sabine, "Wo ein Genosse ist, da ist die Partei! Der innere Zerfall der SEDParteibasis 1979-1989" (2018), Christoph Links Verlag
- Pickel, Andreas, "The Jump-Started Economy and the Ready-Made State: A Theoretical Reconsideration of the East German Case", Comparative Political Studies, 30(2), pp.211~241 (1997)
- Ritter, Gerhard A, "The East German Economy, 1945-2010. Falling Behind or Catching Up?" (2013), Cambridge University Press
- "Interview with Condoleezza Rice, “Es ging um den Jackpot.”" (2010)[URL]
- Nach dem Korporatismus: Neue Eliten, neue Konflikte, "Streeck, Wolfgang", Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, ~, pp.Working Paper 05 (2005), 4
- Streeck, Wolfgang, "Re-Forming Capitalism. Institutional Change in the German Political Economy" (2009), Oxford University Press
- "Verein der in der DDR geschiedenen Frauen. Website"[URL]
- Wiesenthal, Helmut, "German unification and ‘Model Deutschland’: An adventure in institutional conservatism", West European Politics, 26(4), pp.37~58 (2003)
- "Über den Osten sprechen: Wege aus der Desaster-Rhetorik" (2019)[URL]
- "WSI-Tarifarchiv"[URL]