German Politics SG Conference on Germany’s (militant) democracy, University of the West of Scotland, September 2024

Over two warm and sunny days in Scotland on 19th and 20th September, scholars from the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the US congregated once again in Scotland’s largest town, Paisley. This conference focussed on ‘militant’ democracy, but also featured papers on other issues in German politics.

The conference opened with a panel dedicated to militant democracy. In their papers, presenters examined past and contemporary challenges and innovations to Germany’s democracy. With the far-right Alternative for Germany party obtaining the most votes in the Thuringia state election and with the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht achieving an outstanding result for a newcomer party just a few weeks prior to the conference, investigating the institutional and societal mechanisms to protect liberal democracy from anti-liberal and extremist parties and to innovate it felt considerably prescient.

Peter Verpoorten, doctoral student at Central European University in Vienna, kicked off the conference with a discussion of how Karl Loewenstein’s original conception of militant democracy could be adapted and retheorised for the contemporary examples of democratic backsliding. This was followed by Dr. Julius Schneider (University of Essex) who explored the role of the media in a ‘militant’ democracy, and how the German media’s ‘firewall’ against far-right parties broke down with respect to the AfD. His focus was specifically on Germany’s many political TV talkshows where the AfD’s inclusion may have fuelled the party’s rise. Dr Markus Steinbrecher and Dr Heiko Biehl’s (Bundeswehr Centre for Military History and Social Sciences) paper outlined their research design for a detailed study on political attitudes amongst members of Germany’s armed forces and how they deal with political extremism within their ranks. This panel was rounded off by Prof. Julia Schulte-Cloos and Victoria Palchikova who presented their experimental research design to explore the impact of presenting evidence of how the close ties between populist parties and the Kremlin influence citizens’ support for liberal democratic principles.

This panel was followed by two stimulating keynote addresses. First, Christiane Hullmann, the Consul General at Germany’s Consulate in Edinburgh spoke under Chatham House rules about the perceived challenges for Germany’s democracy and how governments should or do respond to them. Second, Dr Heinz Brandenburg (University of Strathclyde) discussed the merits or otherwise of Germany’s Mixed Member electoral system. He engagingly took the audience through the origins of the system to then argue that it was no longer ‘fit for purpose’.

Following a hearty and delicious Ethiopian conference dinner in central Glasgow on Thursday evening, Friday consisted of two panels that, whilst not explicitly related to the theme of militant democracy, nonetheless continued conversations that arose out of the discussions held the previous day. The morning kicked off with a panel on current issues in German politics. Professor Isabelle-Christine Panreck (Catholic University of Applied Science, Cologne) encouraged us not to dwell on the German tendency of pessimism and to look at the manifestations of hope in German politics. Professor Lothar Funk (Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences) urged attendees to consider the political economic factors when exploring conceptualisations of democracy, liberal institutions and national sovereignty in contemporary Germany. Dr Chantal Sullivan-Thomsett (University of East Anglia) completed this panel by considering the issue of responsibility and responsibility attributions by politicians when it came to introducing and passing ambitious climate policy on domestic heating.

Our final panel of the conference provided the opportunity to consider in more depth the recent foreign policy issues and challenges faced by Germany. Rachel Herring (Aston University) outlined the narratives present in recent foreign policy discourse in Germany about their neighbours Poland. Dr Gunther M. Hega (Western Michigan University) considered the path-breaking Zeitenwende in German foreign and defence policy following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and what implications this had for Germany’s relations with Europe, NATO and the US. Dr Marius Ghincea (ETH Zürich) and Dr Lucas Schramm (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich) finished off the conference with their comparative case study on the extent to which different German governments remained committed to change in foreign policy once taboos were broken, or whether they reverted back to their original positions.

The co-convenors of the PSA’s German Politics Specialist Group want to thank all who participated in the event for their insightful contributions and who provided feedback and food for thought, including the discussants. Great papers from established and from early careers researchers, and two insightful keynote addresses, made the conference an excellent event. Indeed, this year over half of presenters were early career scholars. The GPSG is very grateful to the PSA and the International Association for the Study of German Politics (IASGP) for their generous support to enable so many ECRs to travel to Paisley. We would also like to thank the University of the West of Scotland for their support.

 We look forward to seeing the participants join us for PSA25 in Birmingham.