ABSTRACT
The success of all policies of massive state intervention is inextricably linked to the quality of administrative management and leadership. As such, the new government gave special attention to the expansion of its political machinery. The party leadership attempted to rechannel the elan of the forces of reform; party commissions and committees were set up to work out a ‘long-term socio-political programme’ on the basis of the Bad Godesberg programme, and to calculate the financial requirements for the reforms under consideration. Programmatically the Liberals were on a par with what had already been realized in practice by means of the political reorientation that had occurred as a result of the coalition negotiations with the Social Democratic Party of Germany in late 1969. Alarmingly high unemployment was to become increasingly the number one domestic policy subject. The main areas for reform were to be domestic, judicial and education policy as well as Bonn’s Eastern policy including its relations with East Germany.
