Quote of the mounth

„It is also clear that the trend toward personalization and centralization of the party, which observers of the CDU had noted earlier, was taken a step further in 1994 when the party chose to focus most of its campaign on the Chancellor. It is not surprising that the Federal Republic—and not only since Kohl has been in office—is frequently called a „Chancellor Democracy.“ It is indeed difficult to ignore the prominent role of the Federal Chan cellor in the German political system. Voting researchers have for quite some time now talked about a „Chancellor-bonus“ and have pointed out that the personality of the chancellor candidate frequently plays an important role in the decision process of voters.” Source: Christopher Anderson and Carsten Zelle: Helmut Kohl and the CDU Victory, in: German Politics & Society, 13,1 (34) (1995), S. 29.

Commentary

Today it is even more true, because old and new democracies are tending toward personalalised policies. Nowadays the electorate care less about a political party or its official ideology or programme and has more (sometimes even fanatical) confidence in a charismatic leader. It is nonetheless a delusion to think that a strong leader could fix complex problems like an economic depression through a iron fist. It is like believing that we could win a war without equipements or the money to buy any martial material.

Julien Sita, July, 27th 2022.