The European Policy of the German Social Democrats: Interpreting a Changing World

271 Pages·2005·1.241 MB·English

by  James Sloam (auth.)

New Perspectives in German Studies
General Editors:Professor Michael Butler, Head of the Department of German
Studies, University of Birmingham and Professor William Paterson, Director of
the Institute of German Studies, University of Birmingham
Over the last twenty years the concept of German studies has undergone major
transformation. The traditional mixture of language and literary studies, related
very closely to the discipline as practised in German universities, has expanded
to embrace history, politics, economics and cultural studies. The conventional
boundaries between all these disciplines have become increasingly blurred, a
process which has been accelerated markedly since German unification in
1989/90.
New Perspectives in German Studies, developed in conjunction with the
Institute for German Studies at the University of Birmingham, has been designed
to respond precisely to this trend of the interdisciplinary approach to the study
of German and to cater to the growing interest in Germany in the context of
European integration. The books in this series will focus on the modern period,
from 1750 to the present day.
Titles include:
Peter Bleses and Martin Seeleib-Kaiser
THE DUAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE GERMAN WELFARE STATE
Michael Butler and Robert Evans (editors)
THE CHALLENGE OF GERMAN CULTURE
Essays Presented to Wilfried van der Will
Michael Butler, Malcolm Pender and Joy Charnley (editors)
THE MAKING OF MODERN SWITZERLAND 1848–1998
Paul Cooke and Andrew Plowman (editors)
GERMAN WRITERS AND THE POLITICS OF CULTURE
Dealing with the Stasi
Wolf-Dieter Eberwein and Karl Kaiser (editors)
GERMANY’S NEW FOREIGN POLICY
Decision-Making in an Interdependent World
Jonathan Grix
THE ROLE OF THE MASSES IN THE COLLAPSE OF THE GDR
Margarete Kohlenbach
WALTER BENJAMIN
Self-Reference and Religiosity
James Sloam
THE EUROPEAN POLICY OF THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS
Interpreting a Changing World
Henning Tewes
GERMANY, CIVILIAN POWER AND THE NEW EUROPE
Enlarging Nato and European Union
Maiken Umbach
GERMAN FEDERALISM
Past, Present, Future
New Perspectives in German Studies
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Series Standing Order ISBN 0–333–92434–7 paperback
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The European Policy of the
German Social Democrats
Interpreting a Changing World
James Sloam
Lecturer, German Department,
King’s College, London
© James Sloam 2005
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-3581-6
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sloam,James.
The European policy of the German Social Democrats :interpreting a
changing world / James Sloam.
p.cm.— (New perspectives in German studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-349-51821-0
1.Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands – Platforms.2.European
Union – Germany.3.Political planning – European Union countries.
4.Germany – History – Unification,1990.I.Title.II.New perspectives in
German studies (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))
JN3971.A98S62453 2004
341.242(cid:2)2—dc22 2004052592
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05
To Debra, for her love and support
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Contents
List of Tables and Figures x
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Background of change 3
Interpreting a changing world 5
Part I European Policy in a Changing World 11
1 Grounding European Policy: Policy, Power and Parties 13
European policy in Germany and the SPD 14
German policy in Europe 18
The changing role of political parties 24
SPD European policy in the twenty-first
century: ‘pragmatic multilateralism’ 29
2 A New Policy Environment 32
Germany unification 33
The German ‘Mittellage’ 36
European integration 38
Globalisation 42
Part II The Formation of Policy 47
3 European Policy-making in the SPD 49
Party organisation 50
The opposition–government paradigm 54
The institutional context 59
The federal leadership 60
European policy groups and European policy 62
The SPD in the Bundestag 65
The SPD at Länderlevel 67
Delegate democracy and the party grass roots 68
4 Policy-making in a Wider Context 70
The national context 71
Political context 72
vii
viii Contents
Constitutional and institutional markers 75
Federal structures 77
The media and public opinion 79
The social partners 80
The European context 82
Part III The Dynamics of European Policy in the SPD 85
5 The Next Generation 87
Generational change 89
A more ‘normal’ Germany? 92
6 Winning Elections and Strategic Change 99
Electoral-strategic change 100
Making majorities 101
‘Selling’ policy in government 106
7 A Change of Heart 110
Ideological change 111
The rise of the Neue Mitte 112
The rise of European policy 116
Part IV EU Economic and Monetary Union 123
8 EMU in Opposition: Consensus, Conflict
and Conditionality 125
Creating monetary union 126
EMU and the Maastricht Treaty 128
German attitudes to EMU 130
The SPD and EMU 132
Questioning EMU 135
A new SPD strategy? 137
The SPD against EMU? 139
9 Governing the Euro-zone 146
The road to government 147
Monetary Union and European social policy 147
EMU stage III 151
A policy for government 154
Governing the Euro-zone 157
Contents ix
Living with the single currency 158
EU social policy and the constraints of the Euro-zone 161
A social democratic Euro-zone? 164
Part V Eastern Enlargement of the
European Union 169
10 Eastern Enlargement of the European Union 171
Opening out a hand to the East 172
The criteria for enlargement 176
Reforming the European Union 181
Eastern enlargement and EU reform 181
Agenda 2000 185
11 Reforming for Accession: A New EU for a New Europe 191
The conditions for enlargement 192
Reform of the European Union 199
SPD enlargement policy: a new vision 205
Conclusion 213
Pragmatism, synthesis and vision 213
Future prospects 219
Notes 223
Select Bibliography 257
Index 265