![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The representation of East Germans in elite positions has been a broadly debated topic. Most studies show that, comparative to other elite sectors, East Germans are best represented in politics. However, in some areas of the political sector, like the federal government, we find very few East Germans, despite Angela Merkel’s chancellorship. This paper looks at East German representation in parliamentary leadership positions. It finds East Germans remain underrepresented in these positions, especially outside of The Left. It explores three explanatory approaches: (1) there are not enough East Germans in the recruitment pool, (2) East German members lack the desired qualifications and (3) the leadership recruitment process is biased against East Germans. Using statistical analysis based on a biographical dataset including all MPs from the 13th to the 18th legislative period, it finds that both low East German membership in the Bundestag and the existence of a bias lead to underrepresentation of East Germans in those positions. While The Left tries to strongly represent East German interests by recruiting them into leadership positions, East Germans’ access to these positions in all other party parliamentary groups remains low. This has negative effects on the substantive representation of East Germans and on their trust in representative democracy.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Original quote: “Immerhin haben wir es geschafft, dass das Gesicht der Kanzlerin ostdeutsch ist. Das ist ja schon mal was”.
2 Defined here as the population from which those filling these positions are recruited.
3 East Germans comprise between 17 and 19 percent of the German population (Vogel and Zajak Citation2020).
4 An example would be women in STEM or executive board positions, where it is argued, that in some subject areas recruitment is difficult, because women do not study these fields and thus there are too few to draw from.
5 Whereas the number of West Germans serving in East German state parliaments and cabinets is significantly higher, for instance only 4 out of the 10 cabinet members of the current state government in Saxony-Anhalt are East Germans.
6 In the 17th legislative period Angela Merkel was the only East German cabinet member, until in the final months of the legislative period Johanna Wanka replaced Annette Schavan as Federal Minister of Education, Science and Technology.
7 These groups were selected, as these professional groups seem to be more likely enter parliaments as their work allows them the flexibility or job security to start political careers (Norris Citation1997).
8 East Germanness will not be tested in this section as it becomes main feature of the following section on bias.
9 Using the pooled dataset helps us to control better for fluctuations and variations across the different legislative periods. This is necessary as we have seen that in the 14th and 16th legislative period, periods of chancellor change, the number and share of East Germans with leadership positions is higher than in all other legislative periods. However, the 13th and 18th legislative period are periods of government continuation with the lowest number of East Germans in leadership positions. It would be problematic to rest conclusions simply on these two legislative periods.
10 Who considers herself an East German (Bündnis Citation90/Die Grünen Citation2015).
11 There are no MPs in this dataset that were born after unification. The first MPs born in unified Germany entered the Bundestag in the 19th legislative period, see (Kintz and Cordes Citation2019).
12 All members who fit the definition “East German” where coded as “1” in the dataset, all others, whether they were West Germans, members of migrant background or members whose background could not be defined clearly, were coded as “0”.
13 A separate analysis of the 13th legislative period was omitted, as East Germans can be considered newbies at this time. However, the data from that period are part of the pooled data set.
14 Data for each legislative period are based the first year of each legislative period. Changes after that first year were not incorporated into the dataset. Thus, data collection for the 18. Legislative period ends in 2014, even if the legislative period itself runs longer.
15 The methodology used here is fully described in (Kintz Citation2011).
16 Depending on the number of surplus mandates.
17 Following coding schemes were used: age in years, gender one a binary scale (1 = male), education categorically (1 = “Hauptschule”, 2 = “Realschule”, 3 = “Abitur”, 4 = University degree, 5 = Ph.D.), occupational group as binary (1 = civil servant/ Freelance professional), party years and Bundestag years in years, type of mandate as binaries (direct election = 1) and office holding or leadership experience as binaries (yes = 1).
18 Attempts to explain these observations can be found at (Kintz Citation2011, 155f).
19 A further check into the data revealed that East Germans are re-selected for leadership positions at a similar rate to their West German peers.
20 Please note that the right-wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) was not part of the Bundestag in the period observed in this paper.
21 This includes actively electing a state prime minister from The Left or entering any kind of governing coalition in which The Left is part of (CDU and Haschke Citation2020).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Melanie Kintz
Melanie Kintz received her Ph.D. in political science from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo/Michigan U.S.A. Her dissertation discussed the question of how MPs are recruited into the Bundestag’s leadership positions focusing on women and East Germans. She has further published articles on the occupational structure of the German Bundestag and the socio-demographic origins of German MPs. Outside of these research interests she is interested in American politics and questions relating to equal opportunity. She has previously worked at TU Chemnitz in the English department and European Studies department and is currently working as a gender consultant at the Equal Opportunities Office at the Otto-von-Guericke-University in Magdeburg.