Nepotřebný východ? - Strany a stranické systémy nových spolkových zemí Německa – Novotný Lukáš (2019)

Political parties and party systems in the new federal states of Germany have undergone a number of significant developmental changes from 1990 to the present. This publication tracks these transformations and focuses on the level of elections to the state parliaments. Given the strong position of federalism in Germany, these elections are an important part of governance. The work first describes the theoretical foundations from which it departs. This is followed by a periodization of the development of party systems from 1990 to the present. Then, one chapter is dedicated to each of the five federal states we focus on here: Brandenburg, Thuringia, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt. The chapters are uniformly structured, first outlining the political and party development in these federal states, followed by an analysis of the party systems in terms of their fragmentation, aggregation, and voter volatility. The concluding chapter provides a comparison of these federal states and the findings are confronted with the results from the so-called old federal states.