Gerald R. Kleinfeld

Christian Søe

David Conradt

The 2002 campaign and election was one of the most dramatic in the history of the Federal Republic. An unprecedented last minute swing narrowly re-elected the Social Democratic-Green government of Chancellor Schroeder. The campaign featured the first-ever American style television debate between the two candidates for the chancellorship. Foreign policy, particularly the refusal of Schroeder to support the Iraq policies of US President George W. Bush, played an unusually important role. In the aftermath of the election the government was faced with a deteriorating economy and the charge of the opposition that it had deliberately mislead voters during the campaign. In this volume, distinguished experts from both sides of the Atlantic analyse these and other critical issues. Their work is based on extensive research in Germany and Washington, which included interviews with major political figures and the collection of new campaign and election data. Contributors: William Patterson, E. Gene Frankland, Clay Clemens, Christian Søe, Gerald R. Kleinfeld, David Patton, Dieter Roth, Mary N. Hampton, Ferdinand Breitbach, Irwin Collier, Helga Welsh, Stephen Szabo.

Schroeder and the German Elections of 2002

A Precarious Victory

Germany's landmark 1998 election saw for the first time in the Republic's fifty-year historyan incumbent Chancellor and his entire government replaced. In this collection fourteen distinguished scholars, from both sides of the Atlantic, have come together to give the first detailed scholarly account of this historic event. From a variety of perspectives the essays, based on in-depth interviews, explore the election candidates, parties, and issues, and places them within the context of the Federal Republic's history, the end of the Bonn Republic and the beginning of the Berlin Republic. Special chapters focus on the growing importance of women inelectoral politics, voting behavior and the influence of the media, and the significance of the election for the European Union. Based on in-depth interviews with political leaders and extensive field research this book is ideally suited for specialists in German and European politics and the interested reader who wants far more depth of coverage than the main stream media can provide.

David Conradt

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