ABSTRACT
According to the German Marxist view, there is an ever-increasing contradiction apparent between the bourgeois parliamentary system and the fascist potential of the West German state, as shown by such measures as the Berufsverbot and the passing of the anti-terrorist laws. The performance of the Federal Republic must still be counted as remarkable, even if we allow for the case made by sceptics and critics, and that is true whether judging the republic comparatively or against previous German history. Hans-Magnus Enzensberger is representative of the moderate critics. The deliberate containment of the political arena was realised through the wide power of judicial review given to the Federal Constitutional Court, but the Court could scarcely have proved so resilient if it were not for the presence of a powerful cultural support. Although party politicisation has given the Federal Republic an important basis of legitimacy, the consequences of that process could have been divisive if it had not been modified, even blunted.
