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East Germany Government and Politics
THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC (East Germany) is organized along
the lines of the other East European communist systems that were
created at the end of World War II in imitation of the Soviet
model. The East German "socialist state" therefore embodies the
principles of Marxism-Leninism as applied to specific national
conditions. In theory, the principle of democratic centralism
serves as the basis for "the realization of the sovereignty of
the working people" and as the guiding principle for the
construction of the socialist state. As in other Marxist-Leninist
systems, the ruling communist party, in this case the Socialist
Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei
Deutschlands--SED), determines the goals, policies, and actions
of the government.
The formal structure of government, as established by the
Constitution of 1968 and the amendments of 1974, remained
essentially unchanged in 1987. Constitutionally, the highest
organ of state power is the People's Chamber, a unicameral
legislature that theoretically controls the executive organs of
government. In practice, however, political power is monopolized
by the SED. Within the party, power is concentrated in the hands
of the Politburo and the Secretariat, the party's two highest
organs. As in the Soviet system, the general secretary is first
among equals in these two bodies. Erich Honecker has held the top
party post since 1971 (replacing Walter Ulbricht as first
secretary; the title changed in 1976 to general secretary) and in
1976 also assumed the top state post, chairman of the Council of
State, which he continued to hold in 1987. Having received a
strong political endorsement from Soviet Mikhail S. Gorbachev,
General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union,
Honecker was re-elected head of the SED at its Eleventh Party
Congress in April 1986.
In the view of the party leadership, the government exists as
the instrument through which the party administers the country
and implements communist policies and programs. Although four
other political parties have been allowed to exist under the
"Alliance Policy" (Bündnispolitik), they have been tightly
controlled by and subservient to the ruling communists. The
existence of other parties and mass organizations has given the
appearance of a pluralist system, but as of mid-1987 there had
been no institutionalized political opposition.
Data as of July 1987
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