Socialist heritage or current unemployment: Why do the evaluations of democracy and socialism differ between east and west Germans?

Culture, memory, and structural change: explaining support for “socialism” in a post-socialist society

“…SocIdea is very similar to items previously used to measure support for the idea of socialism (e.g. Westle 1992;Weil 1993a, b;Noelle-Neumann 1994;Fuchs 1997;Pollack 2000;Zelle 2000;e.g., Finkel et al 2001;Rohrschneider and Schmitt-Beck 2002). 18 Other items measure the degree of support for various types of public policies.…”

“…Rather than expressing "cultural values," they are held to signify self-interested strategies that social actors have chosen for dealing with material challenges, seemingly in ignorance of the personal and collective past. What such accounts cannot explain, however, is why the same economic conditions often produce different outcomes in different settings-why an unemployed German in the West, for example, is less likely to endorse the idea of socialism than a securely employed German in the East (Zelle 2000). Nor can they explain why materially deprived members of the same society will nonetheless exhibit differing affinities for the same ideas-for example, why some unemployed East Germans reject socialism while some economic "winners" embrace it (e.g.…”

“…Nor can they explain why materially deprived members of the same society will nonetheless exhibit differing affinities for the same ideas-for example, why some unemployed East Germans reject socialism while some economic "winners" embrace it (e.g. Straughn 2007;Zelle 2000).…”

“…That is, materialists expect social actors to weigh the expected costs and benefits of implementing a particular idea (Grix 2000;Pollack 2000;Zelle 2000) relative to the material interests given by their present location in social structure. Although social actors are not necessarily assumed to "maximize" self-interest in the rational-choice sense, materialist theories do hold that ideational strategies will be evaluated by their capacity, if effectively implemented, to fulfill current or anticipated existential needs and material aspirations.…”

“…While the image of gleeful East Germans atop the crumbling Berlin Wall dispelled any illusion of ideological omnipotence on the part of the communist states, it soon became apparent that their overthrow did not mark the death of "socialism" in all of its forms. Although few in Eastern Europe wished to see the old regimes restored, there were signs that the "body of ideas" they claimed to uphold enjoyed a level of popular appeal rivaling that of free-market principles in much of the region (Alwin et al 1995;Fuchs 1997;Fuchs and Klingemann 2002;Jacobs 2001;Mason 1995;Noelle-Neumann 1994;Pollack 1999;Schmidt-Sinns 1994;Liebig 1995, 2000;Weil 1993a, b;Zelle 2000). Although only a minority advocated a return to "socialism" as experienced in their respective countries, "most people…tended to support important policies and values associated with the state socialist regimes they have left behind," expressing "widespread egalitarianism, support for a strong role for the government in the economy, and deep skepticism about a distributive system based more on merit than on need" (Mason 1995, p. 56-57).…”