ABSTRACT

Political participation and the development of democracy in eastern Germany share some of the conditions that shape the picture of participation and democratization in other formerly state socialist countries. But to a very large extent, democratic participation in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) is determined by the form unification with West Germany took: the five new states and East Berlin joined the old Bundesrepublik; they took over its political and institutional structures; and the citizens of the former GDR became part of the constituency of the federal government.