Institutional Learning versus Value Diffusion: The Evolution of Democratic Values among Parliamentarians in Eastern and Western Germany

TL;DR: This paper examined the effect of institutional learning and value diffusion processes on political elites' views regarding civil liberties and found that while eastern and western MPs differ little over general democratic rights, eastern MPs are considerably less tolerant than western MPs.

Abstract: After the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, public opinion surveys persistently document that eastern Germans are surprisingly supportive of general democratic rights, like other publics in East-Central Europe. Analysts frequently resort to a value-diffusion model to explain the apparent evolution of democratic cultures in former socialist nations. In contrast to this perspective, an institutional learning perspective, which stresses that democratic restraint is mainly internalized through practice, would predict that eastern Germans are less democratic than western Germans. This article uses 168 personally conducted interviews with members of the united Berlin parliament to examine the effect of institutional learning and value diffusion processes on political elites' views regarding civil liberties. I find that while eastern and western MPs differ little over general democratic rights--which corroborates the diffusion argument--eastern MPs are considerably less tolerant than western MPs. Moreover, an ope...