Page 173 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

146 THE MAKING OF THE GERMAN POST-WAR ECONOMY

expression to a norm of participation: almost three in four (73 per cent)
considered it a good idea that people were able directly to make a proposal
for a law; 65 per cent thought it a good idea for the people directly to be
able to vote on the acceptance of a law, instead of its going through the
parliament. As opposed to 23 per cent who favoured a government by
experts, fully two-thirds (68 per cent) of the Germans thought it best that
all the people determine the political and economic direction that the
government should follow. Expecting to codetermine the political
43
debate, the German electorate produced remarkable turnouts in every
local, regional or federal election between 1946 and 1949. This voter
participation often described as Wahlwunder (election miracle) and civic
political engagement in general, however, were not matched by the
government. Although there was indeed an awareness that it was not
possible for any political organisation to claim democratic legitimacy
unless it rested on the freely expressed will of the people as the actual
sovereign and principal in an institutional economic order, and even
though article 20 paragraph 2 of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of
Germany promulgated on 23 May 1949 stated that ‘all state authority is
derived from the people,’ politics hardly rose to the popular challenge.
44
Even though Ludwig Erhard, who was constantly concerned about public
opinion, aimed at popularising his liberal economic concept and policy
which in turn stimulated the public debate on the future economic model
for Germany, the Administration for Economics was little responsive to
the public and most of its laws never reached the public sphere enabling
only a relatively limited public debate about the economic reconstruction
in comparison to the public debate about the political reorganisation of
post-war Germany.
45
Thus merely 13 per cent (as against to 51 per cent) of the people in
post-war West Germany believed that politics had done everything to
improve the prevailing economic situation. Although the populace was
46
relatively mis- or even uninformed about actual governmental policies and
the electorate was widely subject to partisan and often misleading
messages disseminated by the political parties, 51 per cent (as against to 19
per cent) of the eligible voters were in general satisfied with the outcome
of the first federal elections and the majority (47 per cent) had faith in
47
the victors mainly due to the noticeably improving economic situation.
48
Furthermore, the object-lesson on a planned economy versus a Social
Market Economy as offered by the press influenced the electorate in that
direction. In essence, however, just as little public relations was done by
49
the Economic Council and the Administration for Economics, the
newspaper editorial offices also hardly met their obligation factually to
inform the general public on effective economic policies but tolerated