ABSTRACT
In the West German political system, other mechanisms underpin the principle of consensus politics. The working practice of parliaments incorporates all parties into the decision making processes through proportional representation in parliamentary committees and aims at a consensus formula as basis for legislation. The strictures of the Basic Law stipulate a consensus of parties with the democratic political framework in West Germany. Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union experienced a dramatic numerical membership expansion; their social posit-ion in society, their roots in the middle strata remained unaltered. Memberhsip recruitment into established parties, which used to be lively in the early seventies, has become a mere trickle. The distance has been greatest to young people with higher education who tend to be most outspoken and uncompromising in their critical condemnation of parties as a feasible framework for political activity and for participation in democracy.
