A New Era of Electoral Instability

Abstract: Over the past half century, the behavior of German voters has changed profoundly. After a long period of stability, elections have dramatically altered their character - at first rather gradually, but during the past decade at an accelerated speed. Voters' decision-making has become much more volatile, rendering election outcomes less predictable. The long-term process of party system fragmentation that had already been going on for a while intensified sharply. A particularly conspicuous outcome of this period of turbulent electoral politics was the termination of Germany's exceptionality as one of the few European countries without a strong right-wing populist party. The chapter traces this development in detail. It identifies three distinctive phases of party system development: 1949 to 1976, 1980 to 2005, and 2009 to 2017. The topoi of realignment and dealignment are evoked as key concepts for interpreting the trends that have become increasingly visible since the second phase

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• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource, 3-24 S.
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Veröffentlichungsversion ; begutachtet (peer reviewed) ; In: Schmitt-Beck, Rüdiger (Hg.), Roßteutscher, Sigrid (Hg.), Schoen, Harald (Hg.), Weßels, Bernhard (Hg.), Wolf, Christof (Hg.): The Changing German Voter. 2022. S. 3-24. ISBN 978-0-19-884751-9

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Politik

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Mannheim
• (who): SSOAR, GESIS – Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften e.V.
• (when): 2022
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Oxford
• (who): Oxford University Press
• (when): 2022
• Creator: Schmitt-Beck, Rüdiger ; Roßteutscher, Sigrid ; Schoen, Harald ; Weßels, Bernhard ; Wolf, Christof

Further information

• DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198847519.003.0001
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2406280652147.765187861422
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.