Introduction

In 1949, deputies often parties and three independents were elected into the first Bundestag (federal legislature) of the Federal Republic. At that time, it was by no means clear whether the high fractionalisation that had been characteristic of the Weimar Reichstag would continue in the new legislature. However, Adenauer was able to form a government coalition including only three parties which disposed of 52 per cent majority of the seats. Throughout the fifties, a process of concentration among the political parties represented in the Bundestag took place, which reduced the number to four in 1957 and to three in 1961. It is only since 1983 that, with the newly founded Green party (Die Grünen), a fourth party came again into the game. Nevertheless, only once, in 1957, did the Christian Democrats win an absolute majority in the Bundestag, and coalition governments have been the rule.

In this chapter, I shall limit myself to studying the coalitional behaviour of the political parties in the period between 1968 and 1982, when only three parties played a significant role in West Germany, i.e. the Christian Democratic party (CDU/CSU), the Social Democratic party (SPD) and the liberal Free Democratic party (FDP). Under the conditions of this party system, aside from the possibility of an all-party coalition which was never formed, three coalitions of two parties are possible and have in fact come into existence.