ABSTRACT
The German party system has undergone major changes both in respect of the total number of effective parties and the ideological distance between the various political tendencies. A large number of parties, a high level of fragmentation in the party system, and a complex cleavage structure (class, religion, centre – periphery, anticommunism versus communism, and native population versus refugees and exiles) characterized the party system in the first and second legislative periods (1949-57). However, the total number and the relative importance of smaller parties declined rapidly, largely due to rapid social change, high economic growth rates, effective social and economic integration of weaker social groups through expanding job opportunities and welfare provision, and political mobilization on the part of the CDU/CSU and the SPD. What had been a party system with a degree of fragmentation not too dissimilar from that of the Weimar Republic was transformed into a three-party system in the 1960s and 1970s. That party system was composed of a centre-right people’s party of Christian Democratic complexion, a centre-left SPD and a smaller liberal party. In this period, the Liberals were positioned as kingmaker.
