West Germany Research Paper

Germany

On October 3, 1990, the states of the German Democratic Republic (East
Germany) shed their last ties to their Soviet created structure and joined the
Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). The 23rd article of West Germany's
1949 constitution, the Basic Law, had been drafted specifically to allow for such an arrival from the East. But as the 1980s drew to a close, few Germans on either side of the border expected it to be used in their lifetime. Yet, in less than a year the beginning of an upsurge of popular protest came together against the communist regime in East Germany and the formal unification of Germany on
West German terms. At a simple level, the constitution may be seen as a representation of the traditional German
The powers of the states cannot be reduced. Each of the federal states and Berlin has its own constitution, a democratically elected Parliament, a government, administrative agencies and independant courts. However, states are binding to the federal constitution, the federal constitution is binding upon the states and the federal parliament is responsible for major legislation and policy. The state parliaments main responsibility is in two major policy areas: education, and law and order.
Administration of federal legislation is mainly the responsibility of the states, allowing for greater consideration of local needs and issues. This system of government ia also intended to bring government closer to the people. In many cases, state powers are delegated further to local authorities. A further area of responsibility for the states arives from the parliamentary structure. The legislative body is the Bundestag, but the
Bundesrat (anupper house representing )the states must approve most legislation. Each state has between three and five votes in the Bundesrat, depending on the size of its population. Members of the Bundesrat are appointed by the state governments for their duration within the state government. Since
This can be backed up by the strong clashes in the council, and by that overruling the postal administration council too often would likely lead to harmful campaigns against the council. The development of the telecommunication infrastructure within this political and institutional framework became more and more criticized in the
1970s. Finally it caused the demand for reform within the institutional and political framework. The origins of the criticism came from the rapid technological developments of the 1960s and 1970s. Spectacular developments in the realms of microelectronics and transmission technology as well as the continuing digitalization made merging telecommunication and data-processing possible. This resulted in new quantitative and qualitative demands on the telecommunication infrastructure. According to critics, the West German PTT, by not allowing competition, had not been in a position to complete these demands. This criticism, mainly forwarded by the Liberal Democratic Party, was mostly concerned with the international competitiveness of West Germany. Further demands for the