Review Article: Democratization as Cultural History, or: When is (West) German Democracy Fulfilled?

This review article seeks to advance the notion of democracyas action as a concept for the study of (West) German democracy.It suggests that it would be preferable to define democracyas practical rather than speculative so as to show how democraticculture, far from being merely an object of reverence, emergedin the form of serious disputes and equally serious displacements.Because democracy is the régime within which the strugglefor democracy finds legitimacy, the study of democracy meansexamining how men and women invoked democracy in the strugglefor what they believed were democratic goals and aspirations.Among the books under review, three in particular seem bestto anticipate future research in the area, in that they examinepost-1945 German democratization in an anti-teleological vein,mindful of conflict and the competition for power.