Interests and the Wall of Ideas: Germany's Eastern Trade Policy after Unification

Since 1989, Germany's domestic and international environments have experienced significant changes. Thus, it is reasonable to expect that the country's long-standing foreign and domestic policies will adapt to novel challenges and pressures. This article examines eastern trade policy, an a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Comparative political studies 1997-12, Vol.30 (6), p.675-698
Main Authors: ANDERSON, JEFFREY J., WALLANDER, CELESTE A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Central Europe
Commercial policy
Comparative politics
Eastern Europe
Economic change
Economic development
Economic relations
Germany
GERMANY IN GENERAL
Ideology
Interest groups
International Trade
Policy
Policymaking
Political economy
PUBLIC POLICY
Reunification
Russia (Federative Republic)
Trade
Trade policy
Unification
UNIFICATION OR REUNIFICATION OF SOVEREIGN GEOGRAPHIC-POLITICAL ENTITIES
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Summary:Since 1989, Germany's domestic and international environments have experienced significant changes. Thus, it is reasonable to expect that the country's long-standing foreign and domestic policies will adapt to novel challenges and pressures. This article examines eastern trade policy, an area in which one might expect to observe a greater degree of government intervention postunification. In fact, no such adaptation has taken place. This empirical puzzle lends itself to analysis based on the interaction of interests, institutions, and ideas. Unification altered the prevailing constellation of material economic interests in Germany, as well as parliamentary-electoral institutions. However, the events of 1989 to 1990 left untouched dominant ideas that shaped the West German political economy, as well as crucial sets of domestic and international institutions linked to those ideas. The authors conclude that the absence of an interventionist trade response stems from continuity at the nexus of ideas and institutions in unified Germany.
ISSN:0010-4140
1552-3829
DOI:10.1177/0010414097030006002