The programmatic development of the Eastern German PDS: Learning what from whom and under what conditions?

Abstract

The unification of Germany in 1990 left the PDS in an ideological and programmatic vacuum. It found itself in a position where it had to develop programmes and policies from scratch, largely devoid of contact with other parties in other countries. In the immediate post-unification period the PDS therefore espoused programmatic positions with the single aim of self-preservation. None the less co-operation with like-minded parties and movements abroad has always been a facet of the PDS's rhetoric, with PDS leaders frequently stressing the party's internationalism. However, only really in the late 1990s – and particularly with the PDS's entry into the European parliament in 1999 – was the PDS's position stable enough for it to try and realize these aims. Even then, the ideological diversity of the far-left movement across Europe has not been conducive to the creation of detailed policy preferences, even if most parties have been able to agree on what they do not stand for. The creation of a European Party of the Left in May 2004 offers an opportunity to put this right, and it is in this arena that the PDS has the best opportunity to engage in policy networking and policy transfer.

Notes

1. See in particular M. Gerner, Partei ohne Zukunft (Munich: Tilsner, 1994). For a detailed discussion of the PDS's development out of the SED in 1989–91, see P. Barker, ‘From the SED to the PDS: Continuity or Renewal?’, in P. Barker (ed.), The Party of Democratic Socialism: Modern Post-Communism or Nostalgic Populism?, German Monitor, Vol.42 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998), pp.1–17.

2. D. Roth, ‘Die Wahlen zur Volkskammer in der DDR: Der Versuch einer Erklärung’, Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Vol.31 (1990), pp.369–93; H. Rattinger, ‘Parteineigungen, Sachfragen und Kandidatenorientierungen in Ost- und Westdeutschland’, in H. Rattinger, O.W. Gabriel and W. Jagodzinski (eds.), Wahlen und politische Einstellungen im vereinigten Deutschland 1990–1992 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 1994), pp.267–315.

3. H. Bortfeldt, Von der SED zur PDS: Wandlung zur Demokratie? (Bonn: Bouvier, 1992), p.295; G. Smith, ‘The “New” Party System’, in G. Smith, W.E. Paterson, P.H. Merkl and S. Padgett (eds.), Developments in German Politics (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1992), p.100; P. Moreau, PDS: Anatomie einer postkommunistischen Partei (Bonn and Berlin: Bouvier, 1992), p.459; Gerner, Partei ohne Zukunft, p.59.

4. D. Hough, The Fall and Rise of the PDS in Eastern Germany, 1989–2000 (Birmingham: Birmingham University Press, 2002); F. Oswald, The Party That Came Out of the Cold War: The Party of Democratic Socialism in Germany 1989–1999 (London: Praeger, 2002).

5. Although the PDS failed to surpass the electorally significant five per cent barrier in the 2002 federal elections, and was therefore ineligible for preference votes that were being redistributed, it is none the less represented in the Bundestag by Petra Pau, who was directly elected in Berlin Marzahn-Hellersdorf, and Gesine Lötzsch, who was directly elected in Berlin Lichtenberg-Höhenschönhausen.

6. F. Berg, Die Mitte-Links-Koalition in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Berlin: Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, 2001); M. Gerner, ‘Die SPD–PDS Regierungskoalition in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Nagelprobe für die Regierungsfähigkeit der SED-Nachfolgeorganisation’, in G. Hirscher and P. Christian Segall (eds.), Die PDS: Zustand und Entwicklungsperspektiven (Munich: Hanns Seidel Stiftung, 2000), pp.97–108; L. Probst, Die PDS – von der Staats- zur Regierungspartei: Eine Studie aus Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Hamburg: Verlag Dr Kovac, 2000).

7. D. Hough and J. Grix, ‘The PDS and the SPD's Dilemma of Strategy in the Eastern German Länder’, Politics, Vol.21, No.3 (2001), pp.158–67; M. Rueschemeyer, ‘A Divided Left: The SPD and Reformed Communists in Eastern Germany’, in P.H. Merkl (ed.), The Federal Republic of Germany at Fifty: The End of a Century of Turmoil (London: Macmillan, 1999), pp.123–34.

8. See, for example, V. Neu, Das Janusgesicht der PDS (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2004); J. Lang, Ist die PDS eine demokratische Partei? Eine extremismustheoretische Untersuchung (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2003); Hough, The Fall and Rise of the PDS, pp.23–31; P. Moreau, Die PDS: Profil einer antidemokratischen Partei (München: Hanns Seidel Stiftung, 1998); V. Neu, Die Potentiale der PDS und der Republikaner im Winter 1997-98 (Sankt Augustin: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, 1998); P. Moreau and J. Lang, Linksextremismus: Eine unterschätzte Gefahr (Bonn: Bouvier, 1996); P. Moreau and J. Lang, Was will die PDS? (Frankfurt am Main: Ullstein, 1994).

9. G.R. Kleinfeld, ‘The PDS: Between Socialism and Regionalism’, in M.N. Hampton and C. Søe (eds.), Between Bonn and Berlin: German Politics Adrift? (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), pp.137–54.

10. D.F. Ziblatt, ‘Putting Humpty-Dumpty Back Together Again’, German Politics and Society, Vol.16, No.1 (1998), p.5.

11. Sahra Wagenknecht – the talismanic figurehead of the KPF – was elected to the European parliament in the 2004 EP elections.

12. See D. Hough and V. Handl, ‘The (Post-)Communist Left and the European Union: The Czech KSČM and the German PDS’, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol.37, No.3 (2004), pp.319–39.

13. See A. Grzymala-Busse, ‘The Programmatic Turnaround of Communist Successor Parties in East Central Europe, 1989–1998’, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol.35, No.1 (2002), p.51; A. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming the Communist Past: The Regeneration of Communist Parties in East Central Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp.9–10.

14. D. Hough, ‘“Made in Eastern Germany”: The PDS and the Articulation of Eastern German Interests’, German Politics, Vol.9, No.2 (2000), pp.125–48.

15. H. Neubert, Internationalismus: Tradition und aktuelle Erfordernisse (Berlin: Grundsatz Kommission der PDS, May 1998), p.36.

16. For further discussion, see C. Major, ‘Ist die PDS ein Stück europäischer Normalität? Eine Fallstudie zur Europapolitik der PDS’, unpublished manuscript, Otto-Suhr-Institut für Politikwissenschaft an der Freien Universität, Berlin, 2001, p.5.

17. See D. Mühlberg, ‘Beobachtete Tendenzen zur Ausbildung einer ostdeutschen Teilkultur’, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, No.11 (2001), pp.30–38.

18. For a particularly provocative analysis of these differences, see M. Howard, ‘An Eastern German Ethnicity? Understanding the New Division of Unified Germany’, German Politics and Society, Vol.13 (Winter 1995), pp.49–70.

19. Hough, The Fall and Rise of the PDS, pp.92–6.

20. The old programme is still available at <http://www.pdsnetz.de/service/progd.htm>, while the new programme can be found at <http://www.pds-online.de/partei/grundsatzdokumente/programm/index.htm>.

21. Author's interview with Bernd Ihme, secretary of the PDS's programme commission, Berlin, 17 Dec. 2002.

22. D. Hough, The Fall and Rise of the PDS, p.28.

23. See V. Handl, ‘Choosing Between China and Europe? Virtual Inspiration and Policy Transfer in the Programmatic Development of the Czech Communist Party’; in the present collection, pp.127–145.

24. Author's interview with André Brie, Schwerin, 20 Dec. 2002.

25. R. Rose, Lesson Drawing in Public Policy (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1993).

26. W. Jacoby, ‘Priest and Penitent: The EU as a Force in the Domestic Politics of Eastern Europe’, East European Constitutional Review, Vol.8, Nos.1–2 (1999), pp.62–7; D. Dolowitz, ‘A Policy-Maker's Guide to Policy Transfer’, Political Quarterly, Vol.74, No.1 (2003), pp.100–108.

27. D. Dolowitz and D. Marsh, ‘Who Learns What from Whom? A Review of the Policy Transfer Literature’, Political Studies, Vol.44, No.2 (1996), pp.343–57.

28. See ‘BAG Umwelt-Energie-Verkehr’, available at <http://sozialisten.de/partei/strukturen/agigs/bag_umwelt_energie_verkehr/index.htm>, accessed 1 Nov. 2004.

29. Wade Jacoby writes of four modes of emulation, of which the faithful and voluntary copying of policies or institutions is just one; faithful but less voluntary emulation can occur (emulation in ‘patches’), as can voluntary lesson drawing (‘templating’) and less voluntary coercive measures (‘thresholds’ that need to be met). For further analysis of this, see W. Jacoby, The Enlargement of the European Union and NATO: Ordering from the Menu in Central Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

30. Author's interview with André Brie, Schwerin, 20 Dec. 2002.

31. Author's interview with Judith Dellheim, Berlin, 17 Dec. 2002.

32. Author's interview with Peter Porsch, Dresden, 16 Dec. 2002.

33. P. Moreau, ‘Transnationale Vergleiche: Partei des demokratischen Sozialismus, Parti Communiste Français, Partito della Rifondazione Comunista. Politische, ideologische und strategische Konvergenzen’, in Barker (ed.), The Party of Democratic Socialism, p.129.

34. P. Moreau, ‘Die Partei des demokratischen Sozialismus’, in P. Moreau, M. Lazar and G. Hirscher (eds.), Der Kommunismus in Westeuropa (Lansberg am Lech: Günther-Olzog-Verlag, 1998), p.318.

35. Hough and Handl, ‘The (Post-)Communist Left and the European Union’.

36. ‘PDS und FKP: Zusammenarbeit intensivieren: Meinungsaustausch zwischen Lothar Bisky und Robert Hue’, PDS Pressedienst, 22, 2 June 2000; available at <http://sozialisten.de/politik/publikationen/pressedienst/view_html?zid = 8294&bs = 1&n = 1>, accessed 1 June 2004.

37. ‘PDS und FKP: Zusammenarbeit intensivieren: Meinungsaustausch zwischen Lothar Bisky und Robert Hue’, PDS Pressedienst, 22, 2 June 2000; available at <http://sozialisten.de/politik/publikationen/pressedienst/view_html?zid=8294&bs=1&n=1>, accessed 1 June 2004.

38. Confederal Group of the United European Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL), The GUE/NGL Constituent Declaration, 1994, quoted in R. Dunphy, Contesting Capitalism: Left Parties and European Integration (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), p.172.

39. Major, Ist die PDS ein Stück europäischer Normalität?, p.7.

40. Dunphy, Contesting Capitalism, p.169.

41. B. Kühn, ‘Garantieren Konvergenzkriterien die Stabilität des Euro?’, in PDS Disput, Feb. 1998; available at <http://sozialisten.de/politik/publikationen/disput/view_html?zid=1723&bs=1&n=19>, accessed 3 July 2004.

42. Dunphy, Contesting Capitalism, p.169.

43. See, for example, U. Kalinowski, ‘Einmütig ohne Einheitsbrei’, in PDS Disput, June 1998; available at <http://sozialisten.de/politik/publikationen/disput/view_html?zid=1776&bs=1&n=15>, accessed 3 July 2004.

44. See PDS Delegation in the European Parliament, ‘Halbzeit im Europäischen Parlament’, in PDS Pressedienst, 14, 4 April 2002; available at <http://sozialisten.de/politik/publikationen/pressedienst/view_html?zid=10136&bs=1&n=18>, accessed 3 July 2004.

45. PDS Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, ‘Für eine andere Beschäftigungs- und Wirtschaftspolitik in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Beschluß der 4. Tagung des 4. Landesparteitages der PDS Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Parchim, 15 and 16 February 1997’, in PDS Pressedienst, 8, 21 Feb. 1997, p.8.

46. PDS, Programme of the Party of Democratic Socialism (Berlin: PDS, 2003); available at <http://sozialisten.de/partei/grundsatzdokumente/programm/3-5.htm>, accessed 3 July 2004.

47. Deutscher Bundestag: Drucksache 13/10015.

48. Five west German Länder can be found in the list of Europe's ten richest regions, while every east German Land fits into the category of Europe's poorest regions: see PDS, Europawahlprogramm 2004; available at <http://sozialisten.de/wahlen2004/wahlprogramm/langfassung/1-6.htm>, accessed 3 July 2004.

49. G. Zimmer, Vorschläge für den Osten – mit Blick auf die gewachsene EU', in PDS Disput, May 2004; available at <http://sozialisten.de/politik/publikationen/disput/view_html?zid=20020&bs=1&n=1>, accessed 3 July 2004.

50. See S.-Y. Kaufmann, ‘Fünf Jahre Brüssel – Bilanz der PDS-Europaabgeordneten’; available at <http://www.pds-europa.de/europarot/view_euro_html?zid=1212&pp=1>, accessed 3 July 2004.

51. PDS Delegation in the European Parliament, ‘Halbzeit’.

52. Dunphy, Contesting Capitalism, p.170.

53. Hough, The Fall and Rise of the PDS, pp.160–62.

54. See S.-Y. Kaufmann, ‘Die USA wollen den Krieg – Europa kann den Frieden gewinnen’, in PDS Betrieb und Gewerkschaft, May 2003; available at <http://sozialisten.de/politik/publikationen/bg/view_html?zid=1555&bs=1&n=6>, accessed 3 July 2004.

55. For further details, see ‘Programm der partei der Europäischen Linken (EL)’; available at <http://sozialisten.de/politik/publikationen/disput/view_html?zid=20028&bs=1&n=12>, accessed 3 July 2004.

56. J. Reinert, ‘Startschuss für europäische Linkspartei’; available at <http://www.pds-online.de/partei/international/dokumente/view_html?zid=61&bs=1&n=0>, accessed 8 Jan. 2004; EPL, Statut der Partei der Europäischen linken (EL); available at <http://sozialisten.de/sozialisten/el/statut.htm>, accessed 20 May 2004.

57. PDS Parteivorstand, ‘PDS engagiert sich für die Gründung einer europäischen Linkspartei’, in PDS Pressedienst, 48/2003.

58. Interview with KSČM MP Jiří Dolejš, quoted in Hough and Handl, ‘The (Post-)Communist Left’, p.335.