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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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The Americanization of German Politics
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| Contributor | Patrick |
| Last Edited | Patrick Aug 30, 2005 04:07pm |
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| Category | Perspective |
| Media | Magazine - Spiegel International |
| News Date | Tuesday, August 30, 2005 10:05:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Germans are more intellectual and less superficial than Americans, right? Germans would sure like to think so. But the election campaign here is turning into a decidedly American personality contest. A Thursday evening television debate had the new German politics on display.
It's a common misconception among the left in the United States that Europeans are much more serious, better educated and more intellectual than their American counterparts. Whereas Americans vote based on good looks and personalities, Europeans vote based on ideas and issues. How else does one explain Germany's 16 years of calling portly Helmut Kohl chancellor?
Part of that, of course, is built into the respective political systems. America's first-past-the-post system places more emphasis on personalities whereas Germany uses a parliamentary system which sees voters choosing parties instead of people -- ideas over egos. The result is two parallel political universes that couldn't be more different. American political campaigns are filled with easy to digest sound bites and the occasional effort to talk politics, whereas German papers are filled with the minutiae of day-to-day politics and overly wonkish election campaigns that Al Gore would kill to be a part of. |
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