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Protest Politics in Germany:

Movements on the Left and Right Since the 1960s
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Social movements and the protests they spawn are widely regarded as important to the vibrancy of democracy and its ability to respond constructively to change. In the immediate postwar period, West Germany’s was a “spectator democracy,” with the citizenry largely passive and elites operating mainly through consensus. Beginning with the student demonstrations in the late 1960s, however, Germany experienced waves of left-wing protest that expanded the political agenda and broadened political participation. Later, after the unification of East and West Germany, the country was confronted by new challenges from right-wing groups, which often engaged in violence during the early 1990s.

In this book Roger Karapin carefully examines protest movements on both the left and the right in order to understand how they became large and influential and why protesters in different conflicts used quite different methods (ranging from conventional participation to nonviolent disruption to violent militancy). His study of nine cases of protest includes leftist opposition to urban-renewal and nuclear-energy policies in the 1970s and 1980s and rightist opposition to immigration policy in the 1990s. Comparisons of contrasting cases reveal the crucial role played by strategic interaction among protesters, party politicians, and government officials—rather than socioeconomic factors or political institutions—in determining the paths that the movements took.


Contents

Tables and Figures

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction: Explaining Protest Politics in Germany

1. Political Interactions and German Protest Movements Since the 1960s

2. Urban Renewal Conflicts in Hanover and West Berlin

3. Nuclear Energy Conflicts at Wyhl and Brokdorf

4. Immigration Conflicts in Munich and Rendsburg County

5. Immigration Conflicts in Hoyerswerda, Rostock, and Riesa

6. Conclusions

Notes

References

Index



“Perhaps it is not news that real democracy grows and deepens through protest participation, but it is a pleasure to see this argument supported in such rich and varied comparative detail here.”

—Myra Marx Ferree, Mobilization

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