One of the most important developments in the incipient Berlin Republic's memory regime has been the return of the memory of German suffering from the end and aftermath of World War II. Elite discourses about the bombing of German cities, the mass rape of German women by members of the Red Army, and, above all, the expulsion of Germans from then-Eastern Germany and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe have gained massive visibility in the last decade. Although many voices have lauded these developments as liberating, many others within Germany and especially in Poland—from where the vast majority of Germans were expelled—have reacted with fear. Yet, do these elite voices resonate with mass publics? Have these arguments had demonstrable effects on public opinion? This paper delves into these questions by looking at survey results from both countries. It finds that there has been a disjuncture between the criticisms of elites and average citizens, but that the barrage of elite criticisms leveled at German expellees and their initiatives now may be affecting mass attitudes in all cases.
Search Results
You are looking at 1 - 10 of 416 items for :
- "PUBLIC OPINION" x
- Refine by Access: All content x
- Refine by Content Type: All x
Eric Langenbacher
In German Politics and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2008
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 50–81 (31 total)
Alojzija Štebi, “Mišljenje javnosti i feminizam u Jugoslaviji” (Public Opinion and Feminism in Yugoslavia)
Ženski pokret [Women's Movement] 9 (1924), 376–379
Isidora Grubački
newly founded LEW could be, and, finally, an invitation to all the members of the LEW to move away from the traditionalist understanding of politics and toward a full-scale participation of women in the affairs of the state. Public Opinion and
Francesca Vassallo
The 2012 French presidential election witnessed an increase in discussion about the European Union and its policies. To an equal degree the two top contenders, Nicolas Sarkozy and Fran?ois Hollande, criticized European policies and made promises to rectify EU mistakes, if elected. European institutions and decisions became scapegoats for domestic failures and tough economic choices, reflecting a long-term surge in Euroscepticism among French voters, especially in comparison to EU averages. Both candidates sought advantage by engaging in “EU-Negative“ campaigns to be able to mobilize as many potential voters as possible. Surprisingly, a half-year of EU criticisms has not led, at least in the short term, to a further increase in anti-EU positions in the public opinion.
In French Politics, Culture & Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2012
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 79–95 (17 total)
John Bendix
Bernd Eichinger's Der Untergang is the first all-German production in fifty years to feature Hitler in a full-length dramatic film. This article explores the choices and intentions of the producer/scriptwriter, aspects of German public opinion about Hitler, and the critical responses to what was widely seen as an effort to humanize Hitler on screen-though I argue it was ultimately more an effort to finally lay Hitler to rest.
In German Politics and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2007
- Article Type:
- Discussion
- Pages:
- 70–89 (19 total)
Debate. Culture in the nation and public opinion
A Norwegian case. Insisting on culture?*
MARIT MELHUUS
In Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale
- Published (Print):
- 01 Feb 1999
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 65–80 (15 total)
Anja Kruke
From the beginning of the West German state, a lot of public opinion polling was done on the German question. The findings have been scrutinized carefully from the 1950s onward, but polls have always been taken at face value, as a mirror of society. In this analysis, polls are treated rather as an observation technique of empirical social research that composes a certain image of society and its public opinion. The entanglement of domestic and international politics is analyzed with respect to the use of surveys that were done around the two topics of Western integration and reunification that pinpoint the “functional entanglement” of domestic and international politics. The net of polling questions spun around these two terms constituted a complex setting for political actors. During the 1950s, surveys probed and ranked the fears and anxieties that characterized West Germans and helped to construct a certain kind of atmosphere that can be described as “Cold War angst.” These findings were taken as the basis for dealing with the dilemma of Germany caught between reunification and Western integration. The data and interpretations were converted into “security” as the overarching frame for international and domestic politics by the conservative government that lasted until the early 1960s.
In German Politics and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2007
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 43–67 (24 total)
Mark E. Spicka
Perhaps the most remarkable development in the Federal Republic
of Germany since World War II has been the creation of its stable
democracy. Already by the second half of the 1950s, political commentators
proclaimed that “Bonn is not Weimar.” Whereas the
Weimar Republic faced the proliferation of splinter parties, the rise
of extremist parties, and the fragmentation of support for liberal and
conservative parties—conditions that led to its ultimate collapse—the
Federal Republic witnessed the blossoming of moderate, broadbased
parties.1 By the end of the 1950s the Christian Democratic
Union/Christian Social Union (CDU), Social Democratic Party
(SPD) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) had formed the basis of a
stable party system that would continue through the 1980s.
In German Politics and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Mar 2002
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 49–67 (18 total)
Nationalism and Internationalism Reconciled
British Concepts for a New World Order during and after the World Wars
Antero Holmila and Pasi Ihalainen
public opinion that would end all wars. The peoples would instead solve crises through negotiations between their (elected) representatives. Once universal suffrage and parliamentary government seemed to have become the norm in nation-states, foreign
In Contributions to the History of Concepts
- Published (Print):
- 01 Dec 2018
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 25–53 (29 total)
Gianfranco Baldini and Alan Renwick
The topic of electoral reform, a recurring feature of the Italian political agenda, resurfaced in 2014. At the start of the year, a ruling by the Constitutional Court returned the country to a proportional system, similar to the one in place during the First Republic. This chapter examines the key political responses to that ruling and how the decision has spurred further electoral reforms, resulting in the most majoritarian system in Italy's democratic history.
In Italian Politics
- Published (Print):
- 01 Sep 2015
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 160–178 (19 total)
Archival Resistance
Reading the New Right
Annika Orich
which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion or personal belief,” has been voted the Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year 2016. “Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016 is …,” Oxford Dictionaries, 17
In German Politics and Society
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2020
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 1–34 (34 total)