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Germany Agriculture
Although agriculture accounts for only 5 percent of the labor force in western Germany, the agricultural lobby has long been known as the best organized and most successful in Bonn. The peak association of this lobby, the German Farmers Association (D
eutscher Bauernverband--DBV), focuses exclusively on farm issues. The DBV has consistently convinced the government to guarantee the financial welfare of farmers through generous programs of price supports, subsidies, and agricultural grants. These progra
ms have made German food costs among the highest in Western Europe, but no strong call for reform has ever emerged. The minister of agriculture is often a farmer and, regardless of whether the CDU or the SPD is in power, that minister has single-mindedly
pursued policies beneficial to farmers.
Citizens' Initiative Associations
In the early 1970s, a new form of political participation in the form of citizens' initiative associations sprang up throughout West Germany. These associations, in essence nontraditional interest groups, were loosely and often temporarily organized g
roups of citizens mobilized in response to one particular local issue. Concerns ranged from school reform, urban redevelopment, and traffic to environmental protection. The staying power of these associations reflected a dissatisfaction with established p
olitical institutions. Unlike traditional interest groups, these associations aimed to improve the quality of life, rather than the material well-being, of their supporters. Although their ultimate goal is to produce a new social model, these groups tend
to be more skilled at critiquing the existing order than at constructing a new one. Activists in these organizations tend overwhelmingly to be young and highly educated, espousing a New Left ideology. Citizens' initiative associations employ diverse tacti
cs, ranging from lobbying and circulating petitions to organizing mass demonstrations and protest marches. Three major political movements have grown out of these associations: the environmental lobby, the women's movement, and the peace lobby.
With public consciousness of the environment growing substantially in the 1970s and 1980s, a new set of nationwide organizations was formed, including the Federal Association of Citizens' Initiatives on Environmental Protection (Bundesverband Bürgerin
itiativen Umweltschutz--BBU), Greenpeace, and Robin Wood. The BBU was at its strongest in the late 1970s, when it coordinated more than 1,000 local citizens' initiative associations and when almost 1 million people were affiliated with the environmental m
ovement. By the late 1980s, the BBU was associated with several hundred local groups whose cumulative membership reached only 150,000. Environmental activists have focused on a range of issues, including nuclear power, acid rain, and Waldsterben
(death of the forest).
The women's movement, organized in the late 1960s and early 1970s, sought to fight discrimination against women in the workplace and at home. Guarantees of gender equality in the Basic Law had done little to alter the traditional male bias within soci
ety. The women's movement in western Germany developed a two-pronged approach to securing equality for women: programs for raising the consciousness of women, and programs aimed at legislative reform. The first approach focused on the personal development
of women and has met with success at the local level, with most larger cities offering a women's center, women's bookstores, self-help groups, and a network of other women's organizations. The attempt at the national level to mobilize the movement's supp
orters and bring about legislative change remains underdeveloped.
The peace movement blossomed in the early 1980s in response to the controversy over the stationing of intermediate-range nuclear weapons in West Germany. Mass demonstrations called for the government to pursue arms control negotiations to eliminate th
ese weapons altogether. Instead, the Bundestag voted for deployment in October 1983, and, with its major objective lost, the peace movement lost momentum. The end of the Cold War brought a reduction in East-West tensions and the conclusion of substantial
arms control agreements. These developments have further deprived the peace movement of focus. The peace movement was able to mobilize activity against the Persian Gulf War in early 1991, however.
Autonomous citizens' initiative associations were unacceptable in East Germany. The communist government established official organizations--the Society for Nature and the Environment, the Peace Council, and the Democratic Women's Federation of German
y--to co-opt the issues. The peaceful revolution of 1989 that brought down the communist regime in East Germany showed both the willingness among eastern Germans to demonstrate and protest in large numbers, as well as the power of such citizen action. Non
etheless, the levels of protest and direct action are lower in the east than in the west. However, as easterners become more accustomed to the freedoms afforded in a democracy, it is thought that they might become more inclined to exercise them.
Data as of August 1995
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