Post WWII elections Germany
Elections in other US-occupied zones followed a very similar
pattern, such that by the time the US transferred military
government authority to the Federal Republic of Germany, the
federal system proved largely in effect. 25 Restriction on parties
emerged outside local levels, as evident with the KDP in Bavar-
ia, creating conditions favoriable for the dominance of tradi-
tional parties in the CSU and SPD. The 1949 adoption of the
Basic Law (i.e., the German constitution), with its emphasis on
checks and balances, demonstrated West Germany’s transform-
ation into a federal democracy. In just four years, the US Mili-
tary Government managed to transition its rule over Germany
to the German federal government. The speed of this feat dem-
onstrates the effectiveness of the “bottom-up” tactic employed
by GEN Clay in achieving the Military Government’s end goal.
Still, this transition did not occur without criticism. As Ar-
thur Kahn pointed out, American occupation prevented true
grassroots movements from forming. The rationale being that
because urban centers served as the breeding ground for politi-
cal parties, the decision to start elections in small towns and in
the countryside prevented the emergence of new parties. 26 This
is why the CSU and SDP dominated elections, as they lacked
competition from grassroots movements. A second criticism, by
historian Harold Zink, is that the Military Government failed
to introduce democratic principles. Zink argued that too much
emphasis was placed on “the holding of elections, [and] the
framing of constitutions and laws,” with little emphasis on the
needs to fill public offices with German politicians with a strong
belief in democracy, or in educating Germans on the functions
of representative democracy. 27 The two reasons Military Gov-
ernment operated in this manner was: first, democracy was not
an unknown concept to Germany, while the US also encoura-
ged democratic princinples in educational programs. How-
ever, overseeing the full implementation of democracy post-
WWII proved a long-range goal requiring a long-lasting occu-
pation, which GEN Clay saw as unworkable. Additionally, the
emphasis on government mechanisms allowed GEN Clay to
implement federalism and quickly return power to Germans,
thereby meeting militarily-focused goals.
The US occupation of Germany reveals the need to consider in-
stitutional and bureaucratic processes as much as high-level-pol-
icy decision making. More than anything, GEN Clay and his
subordinates improvised on lower level topics. Such behavior
arose from the gap between strategy at policymaking levels and
execution at the operational levels during the occupation. This
proved inherent in the military-political divide that character-
ized US Military Government during WWII. 28 Part of this had
29