History is not Bunk. Tradition, Political Economy and Regional Identity in the German Länder

Abstract

The question of regional identity in the German Länder has received only little attention so far. It is of great political importance, however, as a collective identity at the regional level is a favourable condition for binding decisions to be made on that level or for the delegation of competencies from the central to regional governments. Based on data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) 2016 we show that the vast majority of Germans identify with their respective Land. If the Länder have a longer historical tradition and are donors in the interstate fiscal equalisation system, this regional identity is even stronger. We also found the compatibility of national and regional identity to be somewhat lower in Länder with a long historical tradition. Our analyses indicate that even in a seemingly rather homogeneous federal state such as Germany, differences in the historical traditions of individual regions affect regional identity – in the international literature this argument has so far been used exclusively with reference to historic nations, such as Catalonia and Scotland.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA AND RESEARCH MATERIALS

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at doi:10.1080/09644008.2020.1749265

Notes

1 The distinction is an analytical one, since both mechanisms are mutually dependent: People would not perceive themselves to be members of a group with similar characteristics if they did not feel the need to differentiate themselves from other people who do not share these similarities.

2 North Rhine-Westphalia was founded by the British to counter French plans to place the Ruhr area under international control. In Rhineland-Palatinate the French combined what remained of their occupation zone after the creation of Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern (Kielsmansegg 2000, 85). The formation of Lower Saxony was also controversial: As late as 1975, the citizens of the former Land of Schaumburg-Lippe – approx. 80,000 people on 345 square kilometres – voted in a referendum for its restoration as a separate state. However, the Bundesrat (the Upper House of the federal parliament) decided that the territory would remain part of Lower Saxony (Mann 1997, 350).

3 The new regulation on fiscal equalisation adopted in 2017 and coming into force in 2020 is not the subject of this article. For details see Lenk and Glinka 2017.

4 https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/finanzausgleich106.html retrieved on 08/03/2019.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Achim Hildebrandt

Achim Hildebrandt is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Social Sciences, University of Stuttgart. His research focuses on comparative public policy, federalism and political parties.

Eva-Maria Trüdinger

Eva-Maria Trüdinger is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Institute for Social Sciences, University of Stuttgart. Her research focuses on public opinion about policies, questions of political psychology and survey methodology.