Page 174 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

1949 – CONTENTMENT AND CONFIDENCE 147

selectivity and distortions. Indeed, media policy just as much as
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democratic action at large had to be learnt and practised anew, in view of
the emphasis on and claim for democracy at that time, namely that the
public had to be central in both politics and the media. Despite this lack of
information, the public in contrast took an interest by every available
means in the ongoing debate on economic policy and, furthermore, on the
development of an economic and socio-political model for a democratic
post-war Germany.
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While policy responsiveness seems very plausible for the most salient
issues about which policymakers were likely to receive clear indications of
public attitudes, there remains some uncertainty in the findings and
evidence reported, as well as how to use them, concerning how much
actual public control of policy-making there was. Whether it can be judged
either that the public only loosely constrained policy-making or that it only
on very few occasions forced the government’s hands, there is evidence
neither that government policies were responsive to public opinion in the
timeframe examined nor that the implementation of the Social Market
Economy met with public approval.