On the Way of Democracy’s Development: FRG and «Europe of Citizens»

Author(s):  
A. Sindeev

At a first glance, the article is treating a private issue, namely that of the feasibility of the concept of a “Europe of citizens” in the Federal Republic of Germany. However, while discussing it we have to analyze at least three fundamental issues. 1). What is the West German democracy? 2). How democracy and Western/European integration are interlinked? 3). To what extent the concept of a “Europe of citizens” is able to lead both integration and democracy from the currently difficult situation in which are these two main components of the contemporary Western civilization?

1977 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Livneh

It is difficult to see the connection between these two topics, but on 25 February 1975 the Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Germany gave a decision of great importance in both fields, and although Israel adheres to another system of law, in the opinion of the writer, this decision is of great interest here too.The amendment of the German law relating to abortions, whose constitutionality was examined in the judgment mentioned, is part of a reform movement spreading from Europe to the Americas in the West and to Russia, India and Singapore in the East. It began to have influence upon legislation between the two wars (Russia 1920, Scandinavia and Switzerland in the 1930's), but gathered momentum particularly during the last decade (one of the earlier laws in this series is the English Abortion Act, 1967; one of the latest, the French Law of 17 January 1975).


2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
GIOVANNI BERNARDINI

AbstractThis article focuses on the interplay between the political authorities and economic actors in the Federal Republic of Germany in the process of establishing relations with the People's Republic of China after 1949. Within this framework, the article will assess the role played by the Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft (Eastern Committee of German Economy), a semi-official organization recognized by the West German government. Both the ability of German economic actors and China's urgent need for economic contact with the West caused German-Chinese trade relations to circumvent the strict non-recognition policy followed by the West German government. The article also argues that, while economic relations heralded official recognition of the People's Republic of China by other Western European countries, in the case of the Federal Republic of Germany a division between the two spheres was finally accepted by the major actors involved, and ended only after the change of attitude imparted by the Nixon presidency in the United States during the early 1970s.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-344
Author(s):  
Paul Lukas HÄHNEL

The article examines inter-parliamentary institutions as a factor for interstate cooperation in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. For this purpose, an analysis of the relationship between the parliamentary assembly of the European Communities, the Consultative Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Western European Union and their connections to the Bundestag through dual mandates is carried out. Based on the relevant literature, the article highlights formal and informal inter-organizational links as well as partly overlapping and competing competences between these inter-parliamentary institutions. By using the example of the Federal Republic of Germany, multiple connections between the Bundestag and the emerging European parliamentary level are shown. Finally, the article focuses on the disentanglement of the parliamentary levels in the 1970s.


2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Ertman

On October 3, 1990 the territory of the German Democratic Republic was incorporated into the Federal Republic of Germany, thereby ending forty-five years of German division. At the time, assessments varied widely about whether the wholesale introduction of the West German political, legal, and socioeconomic systems into the formerly communist east would be a success, and what the implications of success or failure would be for the new united Germany. Ten years later, opinions on these fundamental questions remain divided. One group of optimistic observers maintains that the full integration of the east into an enlarged Federal Republic is well underway, though these observers acknowledge that progress has been slower and more uneven than first anticipated. A more pessimistic assessment is provided by those who claim that, if the present pattern of development continues, the east will remain in a position of permanent structural weakness vis-à-vis the west in a way analogous to that of Italy’s Mezzogiorno.


Author(s):  
Desmond Dinan

On June 20, 1950, representatives of six countries (Belgium, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) met in Paris to launch what became the first intergovernmental conference in the history of European integration. The outcome, after a year of difficult negotiations, was an agreement to establish the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), signed in Paris on April 18, 1951. Based on the Schuman Declaration of May 1950, the Paris Treaty established a High Authority of a “supranational character,” with responsibility for managing a common market for two key industrial sectors. The Coal and Steel Community was a political as much as an economic undertaking. It institutionalized a new departure in relations between France and West Germany and helped cement a postwar peace settlement in Western Europe, within the broader framework of an emerging transatlantic system.


Res Publica ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 603-618
Author(s):  
Guy Tillekaerts

The conference committee is one of the most important joint committees in het American Congress, appointed to reconcile differences between bills adopted in the two houses of Congress in different forms.Each house is authorized to call for a conference. Usually, only the most important bills are submitted to a conference committee, and minor bills wilt be adopted by concessions of one of the houses.Each house commits his conferees, and can give them instructions on how to vote. These instructions however are not imperative. The number of conferees in each delegation is not necessarily equal, but each delegation votes as a unit and in the way determined by the majority in the delegation. The committee only is allowed to examine the matters in disagreement and cannot add any new provisions to the bills.When an agreement is reached a conference report is written and signed by the majority of the conferees in each delegation, after which it is sent back to the houses for approval.The bill as modified by the conference committee can be adopted or rejected, in which case a second conference can be asked for. No amendments are allowed.  The conference committee, sometimes called the «Third House of Congress» not only has become a very powerful institution but also a necessary one. It is responsible for about one third of the legislation including the most important bills.lts necessity is confirmed by its two century-existence, and the fact that it has been copied in other federal states such as the Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document