The first decades of the 'old' Federal Republic are often interpreted as a process of liberalisation, democratisation or westernisation. Still existing authoritarian overhangs were confronted with a society in which lifestyles were changing, traditional class and milieu differences were becoming less important, and more and more groups were speaking out confidently and controversially. In short, the relationship between the state, the individual and society had to be redefined.
Many research studies have analysed these processes of emancipation, as well as the state's responses to specific challenges, such as the protests of 1968 or the terror of the RAF. However, much less research has focused on the extent to which fundamental changes in state action have emerged in the context of changing social conditions and how new social formations have been integrated into the decision-making process.
The research project 'Expansive Participation and the State in the Late Bonn Republic in Comparison' is therefore devoted to the question of whether and how legislative and executive action in the Federal Republic of Germany changed in the course of the 1970s and 1980s in response to the demand for increased politicalparticipation. To this end, the three subprojects will analyse different levels of state action (federal bureaucracy, local administration and legislature) and verify the hypothesis of a change in social participation.
The result is a multi-dimensional set of comparisons: diachronically at the level of the central state executive (sub-project 1, Bonn vs. Weimar Republic) and the legislature (sub-project 3, legislation in the social-liberal and Christian-liberal Bonn Republic); synchronically at the level of the legislature (sub-project 3, parallel legislative processes in the Bonn Republic) and local government (sub-project 2, urban planning); and finally internationally at the level of local government (sub-project 2, urban planning in a German-British comparison). It is expected that the multiple comparison will facilitate the identification of causal relationships and allow the identification of specific features of German development.
The sub-projects are run by three scholarship holders of the Gerda Henkel Foundation as part of their doctoral projects:
Subproject 1 (Project leader: Prof Dr Friedrich Kießling)
Participation in the Consumer Policy of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Reich Ministry of Agriculture in Comparison (Researcher: Dominik Antruejo, M.A.)
Subproject 1 examines the effects of participation and expectations of participation in the consumer policy of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. A diachronic comparison with the food and agricultural policy of the Weimar Republic provides additional historical depth.
Subproject 2 ( Project leader: Prof Dr Christine G. Krüger)
A participatory turning point? A German-British comparison of urban planning in the 1970s (Researcher: Anna Christina Berger, M.A.)
Subproject 2 will investigate the role and development of public participation in urban planning in Germany and England in the 1970s. The focus is on how demands for participation influenced municipal administrative structures. It also critically analyses technocratic tendencies in urban planning and examines the strategies of administrations in dealing with the demand for more participation.
Subproject 3 (Project leader: Prof. Dr Carsten Burhop)
Extensive participation in legislative processes during the social-liberal and Christian-liberal Bonn Republic (1969-1990) (Researcher: Prisca Lohmann, M.A.)
Subproject 3 will investigate the participation of citizens in legislative processes during the social-liberal and Christian-liberal Bonn Republic in the 1970s and 80s. The Urban Development Promotion Act of 1971 and the Federal Immission Control Act of 1974 are important objects of study. The methodology is based on social science theories.