Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

The Majority Want Socialism

Otto Meyer | 23.02.2007 18:27 | Analysis | Repression | World

In 2005 after Germany was "united in freedom" for 15 years, 52% championed something as bizarre as socialism (46% in the West and 74% in the East).

THE MAJORITY WANT SOCIALISM

By Otto Meyer

[This article published in: Ossietzky, 2/3/2007 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web,  http://www.linksnet.de/artikel.php?id=2839.]


Those ruled by the dominant media may hardly believe the news from the German Statistical Office in October 2006. In Germany, the rejection of c concrete democracy is growing while the welfare state and socialism have broad support.

Collaborating with the Berlin Center for Social Research and the Mannheim Center for Surveys, Methods and Analyses, the opinion researchers first asked about acceptance of the present form of the German state in the population. In 2005, nearly 30 percent in the West did not agree, “democracy in Germany is the best form of state” (71% agreed). In the East, over 60 percent did not want to know anything of the once longed-for democracy of the “free West” (33 percent were supportive). A downward trend appeared in both parts of Germany. Acceptance was ten percent greater five years before (60 percent in the West, 49 percent in the East).

The researchers discovered what might have caused the growing weariness with democracy. The large majority want to keep something politicians of nearly all parties – driven by the business associations and a powerful choir of the media – sought to take from them for a decade, the democratic and social constitutional state according to Articles 20 and 28 of the German constitution.

The interviewed commented on the sentence: “The state must ensure one can make a decent living even with sickness, poverty, unemployment and old age.” In 2004, 84 percent agreed (92 percent in the East) and 82 percent in the West)… For ten or twenty years, a large coalition from the CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP and the Greens declared and confirmed in government actions that their state was “overstrained” and could not afford “the social” any more. Everyone can and must provide for himself whether as a pensioner, unemployed or sick person. The state must “demand more” and “promote much loess.” The “activating state” is needed, not a “providing welfare state.” The newspapers were full of complaints about social burdens strangulating “ou7r economy.” Experts from business associations and occasionally even from unions urged liberation from “excessively high non-wage labor costs.” Professors of economics and philosophy and several bishops of both large churchex contributed the argument that “the freedom” of people suffers when the state looks after their existential needs. “We are all come-of-age citizens and can and must be personally responsible in the risk society” and on and on. Nine of ten German citizens support the welfare state and even want it better outfitted. 72 percent in the West and 86 percent in the East of FDP voters demanded, “a decent living” in all situations of life guaranteed by the state!

The governing – especially those from the red-green coalition – wanted to know: Do the people – particularly those from the shipwrecked East Germany (DDR) – want to return to something as terrible as “socialism”? The German Statistical Office posed a hidden system often raised by other opinion researchers since the turn with surprising results. This time the representatively chosen interviewees said: “Socialism is basically a good idea that was only poorly carried out.” .

Incredibly in 2005 after Germany was “united in freedom” for 15 years, 52 percent championed something as bizarre as “socialism” (46 percent in the West and 74 percent in the East).

What went wrong? Researchers at the German Statistical Office attempted an explanation that hardly moved the alarmed politicians. The opinion statisticians said they intentionally posed the question to avoid any association with the “command socialist system of the former DDR.” Three-quarters of the eastern population and almost half of westerners longed for something like “socialist democracy.” A socialist democracy joins “central ideas of liberal democracy like the guarantee of freedom rights and competitive elections with ideas of a well-developed social equality, security and direct citizen participation.”

If they could decide democratically, the majority would prefer a form of state and society with more “freedom rights” and “direct citizen participation,” a “socialist democracy” with social equality and security.

Why doesn’t the newly constituted Left party clearly champion this program? Perhaps the term “socialism” could be adopted in the new party program. They obviously don’t know what the people think. They could be set right by the Statistical Office. “Socialist democracy” would describe the goal more clearly than “democratic socialism.”

Otto Meyer
- e-mail: mbatko@!lycos.com
- Homepage: http://www.mbtranslations.com

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Nice news but.. — Ilyan

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech