Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0115/01155.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 28.3 KB | 453 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01155}
$Pretitle{355}
$Title{German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
Chapter 4B.   The State Apparatus}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Stephan R. Burant}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{chamber
council
state
people's
members
party
courts
ministers
sed
government}
$Date{1987}
$Log{}
Country:     German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
Book:        East Germany, A Country Study
Author:      Stephan R. Burant
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1987

Chapter 4B.   The State Apparatus

    Honecker has defined the socialist state as the chief instrument for
executing the public policy of the "toiling masses under the leadership of the
working class." At the Tenth Party Congress in 1981, Honecker declared the
"all-around strengthening of the socialist state an important task of the
1980s." An editorial in a subsequent issue of Neues Deutschland reiterated
that the "all-around strengthening of the socialist state is and remains for
our party a basic issue of the revolution. . . . Without a strong and
well-functioning socialist state there can be no socialist achievements for
the people."

    Although it is not the main center of political power, the state has an
important political function insofar as it serves as the chief instrument
through which the party seeks to implement its programs and achieve special
social, economic, and political goals. Such a cooperative effort requires a
well-elaborated system of coordination between the two entities. The party
determines the boundaries within which the state is required to act. The need
to coordinate the activities and functions of the party and state apparatuses
has resulted in a significant degree of overlap in the policy area as well as
in the personnel of both organizations (see table 12, Appendix A). Both
apparatuses are responsible for a variety of similar activities; however,
while the party is responsible for setting up the general guidelines and
ideological content of specific policies and programs, the state is given the
legal authority to execute them and to monitor their implementation on all
levels of the hierarchy.

    The division of authority between party and state often results in
conflict. Such conflict is based less on differences in ideology between
members of the two apparatuses than on the issue of control and the most
effective way of achieving the goals toward which the party's programs and
policies are directed. However, the overlapping of membership between the
party and state apparatuses--especially between their respective executive
organs such as the SED Central Committee and the Council of Ministers--makes
such a conflict manageable. Moreover, conflict between the two organizations
is often the consequence of disagreement within the various branches of the
party and state.

Council of Ministers

    The Council of Ministers is the government of East Germany and the highest
organ of the state apparatus. Its position in the system of government and its
functions and tasks are specified in the Constitution as amended in 1974 as
well as in the Law on the Council of Ministers of the German Democratic
Republic of October 1972. Whereas earlier the Council of Ministers had been
described as the "executive organ of the People's Chamber," the 1972 statute
defined the council as the "government." According to the new law, the Council
of Ministers was to "carry out the decisions of the party of the working class
on the basis of the laws and decisions of the People's Chamber." The
Constitution as amended in 1974 significantly expanded the functions of the
Council of Ministers at the expense of the Council of State.

    In 1987 the Council of Ministers consisted of a chairman, two first deputy
chairmen, and nine deputy chairmen, all of whom constituted an inner circle
called the Presidium of the Council of Ministers. The chairman of the Council
of Ministers, Willi Stoph, was head of the government (prime minister). Stoph,
a representative of the old guard and a Politburo member since 1953, was again
appointed council chairman in 1986. Unlike the nine deauty chairmen, the two
first deputy chairmen, Politburo members Werner Krolikowski and Alfred
Neumann, generally had not been responsible for specific ministerial
portfolios.

    In 1987 four of the nine deputy chairmen represented the four non-SED
political parties allowed to operate in East Germany: the Christian Democratic
Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union--CDU); the Democratic Peasants' Party of
Germany (Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands-- DBD); the Liberal
Democratic Party of Germany (Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands--LDPD);
and the National Democratic Party of Germany (National-Demokratische Partei
Deutschlands--NDPD). The four non-SED deputy chairmen were the minister of
post and telecommunications, Rudolf Schulze of the CDU; the minister of
environmental protection and water management, Hans Reichelt of the DBD; the
minister of justice, Hans- Joachim Heusinger of the LDPD; and the chairman of
the State Contract Court, Manfred Flegel of the NDPD. The other five positions
held by deputy chairman on the Presidium of the Council of Ministers were
occupied by members of the Central Committee of the SED. Two of the
appointees, Gunther Kleiber and Gerhard Schurer, a candidate member, were also
Politburo members. Of the thirty-three regular members on the council,
including both ministers and nonministers, nineteen were concurrently members
of the Central Committee of the SED, and two were also Politburo members. The
latter were Erich Mielke, minister of state security, and Hans Joachim Bohme,
minister of university and technical affairs.

    According to the Constitution, all members of the Council of Ministers are
formally selected to their posts by the People's Chamber for a five- year
term. In fact these decisions probably emanate from the Politburo and the
Central Committee of the SED. The Council of Ministers is required to work
closely with the People's Chamber, and according to its administrative
guidelines the council must have all its legal drafts and decisions approved
by the People's Chamber before they become law. In practice, the converse is
true; the People's Chamber is obliged to approve those actions that are
undertaken by the council and then routinely submitted to the legislature.
Similarly, the People's Chamber is given the formal responsibility of
selecting the membership of the council; in practice such personnel decisions
are made by the Politburo of the SED. The legislature is then expected to
approve the selections.

    As the de jure government, the Council of Ministers is responsible for
providing the People's Chamber with the major legal drafts and decisions that
subsequently are to be published in the name of the state. The work style of
the Council of Ministers is a collective one. It normally meets on a weekly
basis to discuss problems and plans put forward by individual ministers. It
also confirms decisions that already have been made by the Presidium. The
Presidium is of special importance because of its responsibility for handling
the affairs of the council when the full body is not in session.

      Specific functional responsibilities of the Council of Ministers include
directing and planning the national economy; solving problems growing out of
membership in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon-- see
Appendix B); coordinating and implementing social policy decisions that have
been agreed upon with the support and concurrence of the Free German Trade
Union Federation (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund--FDGB); instructing and
controlling subordinate levels of government, that is, the councils at
district, county, and community levels that implement the laws and decisions
of the central government; improving the functioning of the system of
"democratic centralism" within the state apparatus; and carrying out the basic
foreign policy principles of the socialist state.

Council of State

    Designated as an organ of the People's Chamber, the Council of State was
largely a creation of Ulbricht's during his tenure as first secretary of the
SED. After Ulbricht was forced to relinquish that position in 1971, the
prestige and authority of the council correspondingly began to decline.
However, although it was no longer the de facto supreme executive organ,
Honecker's assumption of the chairmanship of the Council of State in October
1976 represented a renewal of its importance. A similar move was made in the
Soviet Union when Leonid Brezhnev became head of state. It is reasonable to
assume that given East Germany's close adherence to Soviet practices, the
increased invisibility of the Council of State since the late 1970s can be
traced at least in part to parallel developments in the Soviet Union. Not
unrelated to the takeover of the council's chairmanship by Honecker is the
fact that after 1977 the number of individuals who were simultaneously members
of the council and of the SED's Central Committee Secretariat increased.

 In referring to the Council of State, the Constitution declares that it will
consist of the chairman, deputy chairmen, members, and secretary; it does not
specify the number of deputy chairmen and members. In 1987, under the
chairmanship of Honecker, there were eight deputy chairmen and seventeen
members. In addition to Honecker, two of the deputy chairmen, Horst Sindermann
and Willi Stoph, were members of the Politburo of the SED; Stoph was also
chairman of the Council of Ministers, and Sindermann was president of the
People's Chamber. Four of the deputy chairmen of the Council of State
represented the other four political parties, as did four of its seventeen
members. The day-to- day functions of the council are carried on by a small
bureaucratic staff consisting in 1987 of twenty offices and departments, all
of which were headed by SED members. Despite the presence of non-SED members
as deputy chairmen and members of the leadership group, SED control was
guaranteed by the presence of Honecker, Stoph, Sindermann, and Egon Krenz,
probably the four most powerful individuals in the country.

      In the mid-1980s, the functions performed by the Council of State
included representing the country abroad and ratifying and terminating
international treaties; supporting local assemblies in the implementation of
their economic and budgetary plans; administering electoral laws that govern
the selection of local assemblies on the community, city, county, and district
levels; discharging responsibilities for the maintenance of the country's
defense with the assistance of the National Defense Council; and administering
the activities of the Supreme Court and the Office of the General Prosecuting
Attorney to ensure that their actions are congruent with the Constitution and
the civil law. In this area, the Council of State possesses additional
responsibility for proclaiming amnesties and pardons.

Legislature

    The unicameral People's Chamber is described in the Constitution as "the
supreme organ of state power in the German Democratic Republic." According to
the Constitution, the "principle of the sovereignty of the people" defines the
role and function of the chamber. Before 1963 the People's Chamber consisted
of 466 members; since then it has consisted of 500 deputies, elected for a
5-year term. Men outnumber women deputies by more than a factor of two.
Although the deputies of the People's Chamber are nominally responsible to
their constituencies, they are constitutionally directed to "fulfill their
responsible tasks in the interest of and for the benefit of the entire
population."

    Article 55 of the Constitution directs the People's Chamber to elect a
"Presidium for the duration of the legislative term." In 1987 the Presidium
consisted of the president of the People's Chamber, a deputy president, three
SED members, two LDPD members, a representative from each of the other three
small parties, and two representatives from mass organizations. Sindermann was
re-elected in 1986 to his third five-year term as Presidium president. The
membership of the chamber as a whole consists of representatives of the five
political parties and members of four mass organizations: the FDGB; the Free
German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend--FDJ); the Democratic Women's League of
Germany (Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands--DFD); and the East German
Cultural League (Kulturbund der DDR). Because National Front policy has
dispensed with competitive elections, a formal agreement assigns a fixed
number of the 500 seats in the People's Chamber to each National Front
organization according to a formula that has not varied since 1963.

    As the dominant party, the SED is alloted 127 seats, which constitutes the
largest bloc in the People's Chamber. The FDGB with sixty-eight seats ranks
second. Each of the other political parties is allotted fifty- two seats, the
FDJ forty, the DFD thirty-five, and the East German Cultural League
twenty-two. Since many deputies of the four mass organizations are also party
members, the SED's share of the chamber seats in effect exceeds 50 percent.

    Under the Constitution, the People's Chamber is responsible for
determining "the basic principles of government policy and implementing those
policies." It is theoretically empowered to elect, supervise, and recall all
members of the principal executive organs of the government: the Council of
State, Council of Ministers, chairman of the National Defense Council,
attorney general, and Supreme Court justices. In practice, however, these
positions are filled by party organs outside the chamber's control. The
chamber is also constitutionally empowered to determine administrative
principles, supervise government activities, and approve or renounce state
treaties. In the 1980s, the chamber generally has met only three or four times
a year for one-day sessions and has rarely cast a vote that is not unanimous.
In earlier years, the chamber met more frequently.

    The Presidium of the People's Chamber is primarily a coordinating agent
for chamber business. The fact that the chairmen of the parties and mass
organizations do not occupy Presidium posts indicates its relatively
insignificant function. The People's Chamber thus has comparatively less
stature than the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.

    The People's Chamber also has standing committees--fifteen as of the ninth
electoral period in 1986--with jurisdictions corresponding to major areas of
public policy, such as national defense, foreign affairs, industry, labor,
social policy, and culture. Although the size of each committee is not fixed,
chamber deputies generally constitute the majority of each committee's
membership. Additional members, however, may be drawn from outside the
chamber. Each committee meets at least once a year to receive reports from SED
officials, nominally satisfying the constitutional requirement that the
government be accountable to the people.

    In practice, the People's Chamber has been relegated to a subservient
role, and its function in the legislative field has been largely pro forma,
approving measures authorized by the supreme organs of the SED. The deputies
are constitutionally required to hold regular consultations with their
constituents, providing them with reports on legislative activities; to
explain the policy of the socialist state to the citizens; and to listen to
the latter's criticism and suggestions. Even though such sessions are rare in
practice, the People's Chamber is a vital government institution because the
function of mobilizing public support for the goals of the party and state is
deemed important by the party.

    Despite superficial similarities between the formal responsibilities of
the chamber and those exercised by its parliamentary counterparts in Western
Europe, the People's Chamber does not function as an independent entity.
Unlike the West German Bundestag, for example, the People's Chamber does not
permit the articulation and legislation of opposing views. The SED, however,
does ensure that the political parties and mass organizations that play
important roles in mobilizing public opinion are given representation in the
chamber. The basic rule is that opportunities to participate in the
Marxist-Leninist system issue from constitutional guarantees as well as from
the ideology of the party itself, which emphasizes mass participation in an
effort to legitimize its policies. In the People's Chamber, however, the
"right and obligation" to participate is based on the SED's conception of how
much representation each political party and mass organization deserves. The
party specifies what share of workers, bureaucrats, and members of the
intelligentsia should serve in the People's Chamber as well as the ratio of
men to women. At election time, the National Front presents a voting list to
the electorate that is designed to conform with SED guidelines.

    The responsibilities of the chamber representatives can conventionally be
divided into two distinct, though related, activities, both of which highlight
the mobilization function of the People's Chamber. First, the deputies are
expected to keep the population informed about major policy initiatives that
have been presented by the SED to the People's Chamber for legislative action.
This process, beginning with the decision of the party to put forward a
legislative initiative and continuing through the actual publication and
explanation of the law to the citizenry, theoretically requires continuous
interaction between the deputies and the population. It is uncertain whether
the flow of information and discussion is two way, or whether in fact the
People's Chamber is simply required to propagandize on behalf of party
policies with little concern for the various public interests and demands as
specific pieces of legislation are processed through the various phases of
drafting and modification during the five-year legislative cycle. Second, the
chamber's fifteen standing committees give deputies the chance to inform
themselves about the activities of the various ministries within the Council
of Ministers. In fact, there are limited opportunities for committee members
to specialize in one or more substantive policy areas. Committees also have
the right to require the presence of ministers as well as heads of other state
organs at their deliberations. Obviously such contacts should increase the
members' knowledge and political insight and enable them to convey a more
realistic image of the legislative world and the impact of policy to the
constituency.

    The actual degree of effectiveness of the People's Chamber is
questionable. First, direct control over the operation of the People's Chamber
by the SED is exercised through the network of overlapping memberships, which
align the mass organizations to the party. For example, in 1985 the share of
SED members among the mass organization deputies was as follows: sixty-one of
the sixty-eight deputies of the FDGB were also members of the SED, as were
thirty-six of the forty FDJ deputies, thirty-one of the thirty-five DFD
deputies, and sixteen of the twenty-two deputies from the East German Cultural
League deputies. Although it was highly unlikely, deputies holding dual
memberships theoretically could support positions of their organizations
opposed to SED policy. Second, there is little evidence to suggest that
genuine debate on legislation takes place within the chamber, although it
could be assumed that the differing opinions represented in the legislature
would engender occasional conflict between different legislative groups. The
scant evidence to date suggests that the national legislature affirms but does
not debate policy. Third, the amount of time actually spent in session is not
published by the legislature. Overall, these factors suggest that the People's
Chamber performs largely ceremonial and opinion- mobilizing functions, which,
albeit important, do not make the chamber a key policymaking institution.

District and Local Government

    East Germany has three territorial levels below the national level: 15
districts (Bezirke), 219 counties (Kreise), and some 90,000 towns and
communities (Gemeinde). Each organ has an elected assembly (whose composition
is controlled by local National Front committees) and a council, which acts as
the executive. Each assembly in turn features a structure of committees,
composed of deputies and nondeputies, and organized around local policy issues
such as local trade, supply, finances, construction, housing, traffic,
transportation, health, socialist education, culture, youth, and sports. Over
400,000 citizens serve on assembly committees at some level, and 206,652 are
deputies.

    The district assembly is the highest government organ in the district; it
is elected every five years by the district electorate; the number of deputies
in the assembly ranges from 190 to 210, depending on the size of the district
electorate. The district council usually consists of some eighteen to twenty
members; as a rule, SED members outnumber representatives of other political
parties. Counties, as subdivisions of districts, replicate the district
government structure on a smaller scale. In 1985 there were 191 urban counties
(Stadtkreise) and 28 rural counties (Landkreise). The smallest unit of local
government with an assembly and a council is the community, of which there
were 7,567 in 1985. East German officials are quick to point out that citizen
participation in local government exceeds that of Western democracies.
However, the power of local government executives, who are selected by higher
officials, and the narrow parameters of action set by the central government
strictly circumscribe the effectiveness of citizen participation. Local
governments have little independence in initiating policies; as a rule, local
policy is derived from authorizing legislation or a ministerial order at the
national level.

    On September 1, 1985, the Community Constitution (Gemeindeverfassung) was
passed. This document strengthened democratic centralism on the local level.
However, the central control of the state apparatus, described as a "unified
state power," was not relaxed, and the power of the districts increased
somewhat at the expense of the role of communities and towns.

Judiciary

    Like all other aspects of the government administration of East Germany,
the party is the ultimate decision maker in the operation of the legal system.
The Constitution, however, provides for the right of citizens to a voice in
the judicial process and the selection of judges, directly or through their
elected representatives. It further provides for citizen participation in the
administration of justice in an effort to deter crime. Basic guarantees for
justice are said to derive from the "socialist society, the political power of
the working people, and their state and legal system."

    In fact, separation of powers does not exist in the East German
government. Although the Constitution asserts the independence of the courts,
it also subordinates the judiciary to the political authorities and their
political goals. Judgeships are restricted to communists of proven loyalty.
The regime officially considers law and justice the tools for building a
communist society and declares it the duty of all judicial and legal officers
to serve this end. In effect, legal and judicial organs serve as agencies for
promoting official doctrine, and the careers of personnel in the system are
dependent on their political ratings as determined by higher state and party
officials.

    At the top of East Germany's legal system are the Ministry of Justice, the
Supreme Court, and the Office of the General Prosecuting Attorney (public
prosecutor). In 1987 the heads of these offices were, respectively,
Hans-Joachim Heusinger (LDPD), Heinrich Toeplitz (CDU), and Josef Streit
(SED). The public prosecutor appoints prosecutors throughout East Germany,
including those active in military courts; he can dismiss them, and they are
"responsible to him and bound by his instructions." The Office of the General
Prosecuting Attorney is also responsible for supervising "strict adherence to
socialist legality and protecting citizens from violations of the law." The
role of the Ministry of Justice, which is not mentioned in the Constitution,
appears to be largely formal and propagandistic.

    The organs of justice are the Supreme Court, regional courts, district
courts, and social courts. Military jurisdiction is exercised by the Supreme
Court and military tribunals and courts. The specific areas of responsibility
for each level of the court system are defined by law. Professional and lay
judges of the courts are elected for five years by corresponding
representative bodies, except district court judges, who are elected directly
by the citizenry. They are subject to dismissal for malfeasance and for
violations of law and the Constitution in the performance of their duties.

    Under the Constitution, the Supreme Court, as the highest organ of the
legal system, directs the jurisdiction of all lower courts and is charged with
ensuring the uniform application of the law on all levels. The highest court
not only has the right of extraordinary appeal as a measure of control over
the lower courts but on occasion serves as a link in the chain of command by
issuing general legal directives. According to Article 93 of the Constitution,
the Supreme Court "directs the jurisdiction of the courts on the basis of the
Constitution, the laws, and their statutory regulations. . . . It ensures a
uniform application of the law by all courts." The directive function of the
Supreme Court goes far beyond that of supreme courts in Western systems, which
as a rule do not give legally binding instructions to the lower courts
concerning specific questions of law. The Supreme Court is responsible to the
People's Chamber and, between the latter's sessions, to the Council of State.
Internally, the organization of the high court consists of an assembly, a
presidium, and three functional administrative divisions known as collegiums
for criminal justice, military justice, and civil, family, and labor law. The
assembly, which is directed in its plenary sessions by the Supreme Court
Presidium, consists of fifteen directors of the district courts, the chairmen
of the higher military courts, and all professional judges.

    Each district court is presided over by a professional judge and two
jurors in cases of original jurisdiction and by three professional judges in
cases of appellate jurisdiction. The district courts have appellate
jurisdiction in civil cases and original jurisdiction in major criminal cases
such as economic crimes, murder, and crimes against the state.

    The county court is the lowest level of the judiciary system, and each of
the country's counties has at least one such court, which is presided over by
a professional judge and two lay assessors. The majority of all criminal and
civil cases are tried at this level; county courts have jurisdiction over
cases not assigned elsewhere and civil cases involving only small amounts of
property.

    In addition to the regular law courts, East Germany has also developed an
extensive system of community and social courts (Gesellschaftliche Gerichte),
known as either conflict or arbitration commissions (Konflikt und
Schiedskommissionen). The first are formed in state- owned and private
enterprises, health and educational institutions, offices, and social
organizations. The second are established in residential areas, collective
farms, and cooperatives of manual laborers, fishermen, and gardeners. Created
to relieve the regular courts of their minor civil or criminal case loads, the
jurisdiction of the courts applies to labor disputes, minor breaches of the
peace, misdemeanors, infringements of the law, truancy, and conflicts in civil
law. These courts are composed of lay jurors who are elected by their
respective constituencies. Party officials at the community level generally
influence the nomination of jurors to the community courts and exercise
considerable influence on the outcome of cases heard at this level.