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Professionalisation of Politics in

Germany

Christina Holtz-Bacha

This chapter develops the argument that professionalisation of political communication
is a process of adaptation to and, as such, a necessary consequence of, changes in the
political system on the one side and the media system on the other, and in the
relationship of the two systems. These changes follow from the society, which is a
development that is still going on and will take place in similar political systems sooner
or later. Professionalisation in this sense is a general and not culture-bound concept. Its
actual appearance and the degree of professionalisation in a given country are,however,
dependent on a country’s specific social and political structures and processes. In
Germany, the professionalisation of politics, and the way politics presents itself to the
public, has been going on for several decades but is still in progress. Thus, this chapter
will first give a general outline of the changes that affected Western societies in similar
ways and Germany in particular.This will lead to an analysis of the consequences for the
relationship between the two systems and discusses what that all means for political
relationship between the two systems and discuss what that all means for political
communication and for electoral campaigning in particular.
SOCIAL CHANGES LEADING TO CHANGES IN THE POLITICAL SYSTEM AND IN THE MEDIA Professionalisation of Politics in Germany
SYSTEM
The sociological concept of modernisation is used to describe recent changes in
Western societies. Modernisation is closely connected with individualisation, which
stands for the weakening influence of once powerful social structure variables.
Traditional social structures have lost their meaning for the individual and thus their
integrating function. Social variables no longer prescribe individual behaviour in a
binding way that, for example, allowed prediction of electoral decisions with high 63