A Precarious Victory

The 2002 campaign and election was one of the most dramatic in the history of the Federal Republic. An unprecedented last minute swing narrowly re-elected the Social Democratic-Green government of Chancellor Schroeder. The campaign featured the first-ever American style television debate between the two candidates for the chancellorship. Foreign policy, particularly the refusal of Schroeder to support the Iraq policies of US President George W. Bush, played an unusually important role. In the aftermath of the election the government was faced with a deteriorating economy and the charge of the opposition that it had deliberately mislead voters during the campaign. In this volume, distinguished experts from both sides of the Atlantic analyse these and other critical issues. Their work is based on extensive research in Germany and Washington, which included interviews with major political figures and the collection of new campaign and election data.

Contributors: William Patterson, E. Gene Frankland, Clay Clemens, Christian Søe, Gerald R. Kleinfeld, David Patton, Dieter Roth, Mary N. Hampton, Ferdinand Breitbach, Irwin Collier, Helga Welsh, Stephen Szabo.

Gerald R. Kleinfeld is Professor of History at Arizona State University.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction
David P. Conradt, Gerald R. Kleinfeld, and Christian Søe

Chapter 1.The 2002 Campaign and Election: An Overview
David P. Conradt

Chapter 2.Who Won and Why
Dieter Roth

Chapter 3.Gerhard Schröder and the Unlikely Victory of the German Social Democrats
William E. Paterson and James Sloam

Chapter 4.Hold the Champagne: Edmund Stoiber's CDU/CSU and Bundestagswahl 2002
Clay Clemens

Chapter 5.Saving Schröder: The Greens in 2002
E. Gene Frankland

Chapter 6.A False Dawn for Germanys Liberals: The Rise and Fall of Project 18
Christian Søe

Chapter 7.The PDS Implode
Gerald R. Kleinfeld

Chapter 8.Ladies Choice: Returning the Schröder Government to Power in 2002
Mary N. Hampton

Chapter 9.Dogs That Did Not Bark: German Exceptionalism Reconsidered
David F. Patton

Chapter 10. The Poisoned Relationship: Germany, the United States, and the Election of 2002
Stephen F. Szabo

Chapter 11.German Policymaking and the Reform Gridlock
Helga A. Welsh

Chapter 12.Can Gerhard Schröder Do It? Prospects for Fundamental Reform of the German Economy and a Return to High Employment
Irwin Collier

Appendix

Notes on Contributors
Index