ABSTRACT
The constituent associations are important in the structure of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). This chapter examines the Jusos' structure, history, ideology, factionalism. The SPD, on the pinnacle of success as a governing party, was beset by a host of tough problems, including the Juso rebellion against society and the party's system-sustaining policies. The Young Socialists, attempting to abide by internal democracy, emphasized the theory of the "imperative mandate," under which leaders were to be responsible to their constituents. The organization of the Jusos changed little over time despite metamorphoses in their ideology, cohesion, and links to the SPD. SPD critics of the Stamokaps argued that neither government and big business were as interlinked as they charged nor was parliament an instrument of bourgeois monopolists. The three-way schism within the Juso organization during the 1970s continued, although in a different form from the mid-1980s on, when the SPD was already in opposition in Bonn.
