Post‐unification dissatisfaction, or why are so many East Germans unhappy with the new political system?

Wiesenthal, Helmut

doi:10.1080/09644009808404509

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In contrast to Cusack's materialist explanation, Wiesenthal (1998) argues that post-unification dissatisfaction does not appear to be of a predominantly economic nature. Compared to the people of other former communist countries, east Germans are economically extremely privileged.…”

Section: The Pds As Socialist Heritagementioning

confidence: 62%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Book Reviews

Raab

2002

Administrative Science Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

/ preface and acknowledgements for being there. To my family-my parents, my two elder sisters, brothers-in-law and six lovely nieces and nephews-I look forward to adding a fifth Doctoral degree, which will be the first one in the social sciences. I would like to thank a number of institutions that have funded my research: The Department of Political Science at Lund University generously employed me as a Ph.D. candidate and teacher for a good four years. The Swedish Institute supported my extended stay in Berlin, which was crucial for this study. Together with the daad (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst), the Swedish Institute also financed my language training, where I acquired a gds diploma. The most faithful financiers of my travels to various conferences have been Ekedahl-Lundbergska fonden and the Faculty of Social Sciences at Lund University. Last but not least, I would like to thank all of my interviewees. Interviewing not only supplied the case study with indispensable information, but was also an irreplaceable experience, a first-hand exposure to a unique historical legacy and transformation. aim of the study / 13 chapter 1 Compared to the field of communist studies, other theoretical perspectives are applied to a different subject matter: I apply general organization theory not to the sed organization during the gdr, but to the efforts of organizational entrepreneurs reforming the sed into the pds after the fall of the sed-regime. Research on the PDS There is a plethora of good empirical overviews of the pds, but a dearth of theoretically focused analyses of specific phases or aspects of the party (

show abstract

Section: The Pds As Socialist Heritagementioning

confidence: 62%

“…According to the third, "treatment response" hypothesis, east Germans are␣ now reacting against the perceived ruthless and paternalistic behavior on the part of westerners. Expressions of post-unification dissatisfaction maintain -but also create -an east German collective identity (Wiesenthal 1998).…”

Section: The Pds As Socialist Heritagementioning

confidence: 99%

Book Reviews

Raab

2002

Administrative Science Quarterly

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A few years after the reunification researchers observed an emergence of post-unification dissatisfaction of East Germans with political institutions (Wiesenthal, 1998). The dissatisfaction is partly based on an "exposure shock" and the economic deterioration, but also emerged as a consequence of expectations that were set too high and impossible to satisfy.…”

Section: Tax Morale and The Gap Between East And West Germanymentioning

confidence: 99%

Persistence or Convergence? The East—West Tax-Morale Gap in Germany

Möhlmann¹

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper studies differences in tax morale attitudes between East and West Germany using multiple recent data sets. Contrary to previous 1990s evidence, but in line with recent studies on an east-west mentality gap, we find a persistent higher tax morale in East Germany and no indication of convergence over time. Distinguishing between region of living and birth and periods of within-country migration reveals that the East Germans who stayed determine the results and that migration vanishes differences. Regional economic heterogeneity of tax revenue transfers cannot explain the results. We find a framing effect on the tax morale gap with questions phrasing tax paying as the duty of a good citizen. This result suggests no gap of tax morale with moral reasoning related to the social order and citizenry.Keywords -tax morale, German reunification, east-west differences, convergence, moral reasoning JEL classification: H26, H73 Persistence or Convergence? The East-West Tax Morale Gap in GermanyAbstract This paper studies differences in tax morale attitudes between East and West Germany using multiple recent data sets. Contrary to previous 1990s evidence, but in line with recent studies on an east-west mentality gap, we find a persistent higher tax morale in East Germany and no indication of convergence over time. Distinguishing between region of living and birth and periods of within-country migration reveals that the East Germans who stayed determine the results and that migration vanishes differences. Regional economic heterogeneity of tax revenue transfers cannot explain the results. We find a framing effect on the tax morale gap with questions phrasing tax paying as the duty of a good citizen. This result suggests no gap of tax morale with moral reasoning related to the social order and citizenry.

show abstract

“…The German transition, moreover, was conducive to precisely this effect. Exaggerated Eastern expectations that unification would lead to material affluence, fuelled by restricted opportunities for consumption, were underlined by comparison to the Federal Republic – the GDR's main economic referent (Wiesenthal 1998). The politically motivated rhetoric of Chancellor Kohl, moreover, further heightened expectations by invoking evocative language of the ‘blossoming landscapes of eastern Germany’ and of a united Germany in which nobody would be worse off (Jarausch & Gansow 1997: 173).…”

Section: The Conceptual Foundations Of Political Trust and Socialist mentioning

confidence: 99%

Values, trust and democracy in Germany: Still in search of ‘inner unity’?

Campbell

2012

European J Political Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Twenty years after German reunification, surveys have persistently uncovered differences in political trust between the eastern and western parts of the country. Studies have offered disintegrated and inconclusive assessments of the cross‐regional variation. This variation is traced to a tenacious, retrospective sympathy for socialism steeped in political socialisation and experiential learning. Empirical analyses confirm the presence of two key effects. First, retrospective evaluations of socialism not only fuel popular distrust of political institutions, but are more strongly correlated with trust in the east. Second, East–West evaluations of socialism are sufficiently different to contribute towards explaining the contrasting levels of trust between the two regions. That socialist values constitute a core axis upon which East German attitudes pivot presents a challenge for nurturing trust in democratic institutions and renews attention to processes through which supportive attitudes to democracy are acquired in transitional countries.

show abstract

Post‐unification dissatisfaction, or why are so many East Germans unhappy with the new political system?

Cited by 12 publications

References 22 publications

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Persistence or Convergence? The East—West Tax-Morale Gap in Germany

Values, trust and democracy in Germany: Still in search of ‘inner unity’?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About