International Association for the Study of German Politics

Louise Davidson-Schmich, davidson@miami.edu (University of Miami)

For the 2012 meetings, APSA is encouraging members to address foundational questions about representation and calling for research that asks what representative relationships can and cannot achieve, how they might be renewed, reformed, or retooled to achieve those ends, and under what contexts political goals might be best served through direct or participatory democracy rather than through the mediation of representatives. This mandate seems particularly important for the study of German politics given the rise of Wutbürger and large-scale grass-roots demonstrations protesting, among other things, the expansion of the Stuttgart Railway Station and German nuclear policy. The ability of political parties to actually represent voters is being called into question by German citizens. Against this backdrop, the IASGP encourages panel submissions which investigate all aspects of political representation and its limits in contemporary Germany. Panels might investigate, for example, the efforts of parties, social movements, or others to improve representation or discuss the extent and roots of citizen dissatisfaction.