Learning Democracy: Democratic and Economic Values in Unified Germany / Book Review

Claus Hofhansel, Rhode Island College

Abstract

After the initial euphoria over German (re)unification had subsided, it became clear that it would take longer to tear down the mental barriers separating eastern and western Germans than to remove concrete slabs from the Berlin Wall. Studies of German electoral behavior found that eastern and western Germans displayed different voting patterns and that eastern Germans were less supportive of the principles of a market economy and the political institutions of unified Germany than western Germans.