A Country in a Quandary
By Stefan Kornelius

The former President and the former Secretary of State expressed a serious concern this week: "We decided to lead the Commission on Federal Election Reform because we are concerned that too many citizens have lost confidence in the election process, and because members of Congress are split on the question of reform." Thus Jimmy Carter and James Baker submitted their suggestion for election reform, so that the U.S. does not repeat the veritable state crisis of five years ago - the vote-counting debacle in Florida.

Germany could use such prominent reformers. Is it because Germany also stands at the edge of a state crisis? No: in this country a Constitutional Court would not have to decide on hanging chads or the right to a second counting, even if the arguing around the agenda in Berlin gloomily reminds one of the legal farce in the U.S. from the year 2000, and just like Gerhard Schröder's power illusion is similar to the blind fury of George W. Bush on the way to the White House. Germany stands before a crisis - at least in the way the U.S. and many other states of the world see it - because it remains in deadlock. The country will have a government soon, before too long the excitement of the post-election week will be over. One thing remains, however: Germany is structurally blocked.

Rarely has the judgment about the country been so unanimous, and rarely has the diagnosis been ignored so self-confidently. The unambiguousness of the findings stands in glaring contrast to the unwillingness of those in charge to learn. Germany feels strong with regard to foreign policy, and does not recognize that it has given up its front row seat at the "concert of powers." The election result has released uneasiness, particularly strong in the U.S., where foreign policy planning almost imperatively needs a strong Germany.

Does a Bush government need Germany? The analysis does not fit into the picture of most Germans, who since the Iraq war sealed off relations with Washington and certainly also with the Bush government. The preservation of the concept of the U.S. as an enemy may have belonged to the red-green government's obligatory program; however, in Germany it has been overlooked that with Bush's second term in office, a clear change has occurred. America is looking for cooperation; Washington wants to be a good friend again.

The new advances from the U.S. have triggered a clear reaction: caution. People are suspicious of Bush, and rightfully so. He placed the international order on its head, strained and damaged alliances, and shifted coordinates. That cannot be pushed simply aside. Admittedly, a new pragmatism has been brought about with Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State, a pragmatism that does not ask first for ideological compatibility or to be followed blindly. Washington operates now by a policy of small steps. Very pragmatically, a dialogue is sought for every topic: the integration of China, Iran, the revolution in Ukraine, the stabilization of Lebanon - a large topic catalog is maintained beyond the election campaign platform; America is learning to listen again.

All this happens naturally out of self-serving motives. After the Iraq debacle the U.S. has slithered into a legitimacy crisis, a crisis that damaged-to-destroyed the country's claim to power in the whole world. In Arabic countries, the damage is irreparable. In Asia, China is growing to be the next leading nation; Europe has turned away. In this situation, Washington is humiliated - and would be sensitive to a generous gesture of friendship.

If Washington voluntarily creates room for cooperation, who would be more reliable and better suited than Germany to use this offer? Who could more easily fill the European leadership vacuum that seized the European Union after the failed constitution referenda? Who would be better suited to deliver an example of the European modernization ability than the country that lauded itself at times with the title, " Europe's locomotive." "Germany has fear of the future," writes The Washington Post. "Germany is the brake," judges The Los Angeles Times. And one of the most important U.S. government officials in European policy says respectfully, "democracy does what it does." Resignation spreads even among immediate neighbors: "the fact that Berlin no longer generates political ideas and impulses for European unity is well known," writes the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

The world's judgment of Germany often sounds resigned. This is not directed at the voter, but at policy-making, which is halfhearted, which analyzes but does not change anything, and which is tangled up in a self-controlling and strangling system. Perhaps it would require a commission, not for the reform of the election process, but for the stimulation of the system. Presumably, similarly as in the U.S., it would also not be heard.

.......................................................................................................................

This article appeared in the September 30, 2005 AICGS Advisor. It was translated into English by Matthew Wiggins.

The original version appeared in the September 26, 2005 Süddeutsche Zeitung.
For the original German version, please click here.