Democracy's Guardians

Abstract

Abstract The German Federal Constitutional Court stands virtually unchallenged as the most trusted-by some accounts the most influential-institution of the German state. How has this happened? Why do so few oppose its strength? This book, which surveys the Court's history during its first half century (1951-2001), resists any single-cause explanation. Instead, it explores the interaction of many factors over several decades. The Court took root in a pre-democratic political culture. In its earliest years, the Court helped establish liberal values and robust fundamental rights protection in the neophyte Federal Republic. The early Court also helped democratize West German political culture by reinforcing rights of speech and information, affirming the legitimacy of parliamentary opposition, and checking executive power. In time, as democratic values took hold in the country at large, the Court's early role in nurturing liberalism and democracy led many West Germans to view the Court, not as a constraint on democracy, but as a bulwark of democracy's preconditions. In later decades, the Court played a stabilizing role-mediating political conflicts and integrating societal forces. Citizens disenchanted with partisan politics looked to the Court as a guardian of enduring values and a source of moral legitimacy. The Court's path was tortuous and uneven. It was beset by periodic crises; its prestige and even survival were often precarious. Over time, however, West Germans came to credit the Court with helping to redeem Germany from its authoritarian past and return it to the community of liberal democracies.

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