Germans born in the second decade of the last century will have been a subject of no less than six political regimes, seven if they lived in the former German Democratic Republic. Today, Germanyâs democratic polity, pluralistic society, institutional structures, and market economy are growing increasingly strong. In clear and compelling prose, Hancock and Krisch argue that German politics today is the politics of a \"normal\" European democracy moving toward the EU. The authors discuss Germanyâs course of modernization, which involves rapid industrialization and social development following the nationâs first unification in 1871 and its subsequent torturous course of political change embracing Imperial authoritarianism, the democratic experiment of the Weimar Republic, Nazi totalitarianism, and postwar variants of communism and Western-style democracy. Chapters detail the countryâs political history, as well as its culture, new constitutional debates, parties, and economic policy, and culminate in a look at Germany in global context.
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