Present and decentralised - Informal politics in the Federal Republic of Germany

The centralized informal politics of Adenauer's Federal Republic have evolved into modem Germany present-day decentralized informality. Informal relations partially may endanger democratic principles, but they are a means of facilitating political decisions in consensual, pluralistic, media-saturated systems such as Germany. With regard to the effects of such informal political structures, it seems to be important whether social, economic and media pluralism as well as strong parties are able to function as a corrective to this asymmetric exercise of power.