ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses Germany’s economic and political prospects on the basis of empirical trends since 1990 and necessary conditions for successful regime transition. It focuses on three central problematics of system change in unified Germany: economic reconstruction in the former German Democratic Republic; the emergence of new conflictual issues which have resulted in incipient electoral dealignment and the erosion of labor peace; and renewed uncertainty about the course of European integration. The attainment of national unity in 1990 significantly enhanced Germany’s material, human, and political requisites of modernity. Dawning public awareness of the difficulties of economic integration prompted an electoral backlash against all of the mainstream parties. Recurrent conflicts have also characterized relations since unification cm Germany’s normally tranquil labor market. Accompanying unified Germany’s domestic economic, social, and political upheavals was a discernible slowdown in the momentum of European integration after 1991.
