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Full-Text Articles in Political Science

Unprecedented Success: How The Alternative For Germany Party Capitalized On Eastern German Economic Grievance And Euroscepticism In 2013 And 2014, Aidan J. Schwob May 2022

Unprecedented Success: How The Alternative For Germany Party Capitalized On Eastern German Economic Grievance And Euroscepticism In 2013 And 2014, Aidan J. Schwob

Gettysburg College Headquarters

The Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has experienced a remarkably fast rise to state, federal, and European electoral success and has disrupted German politics. This paper investigates how the AfD achieved popularity in 2013 and 2014 and later became the first far-right German party since the Nazi Party to be represented in the Bundestag. I find that eastern Germany’s aging population and deficient economy engendered contempt for Angela Merkel and the Bundestag that transformed to euroscepticism when Germany committed to taxpayer bailouts of Greece during the eurozone debt crisis while ignoring domestic economic inequality. As such, the AfD’s single-issue platform …


Robin Hood Politics: An Analysis Of Wealth Redistributive Policies And The Impact Of Political Donations, Marley R. Dizney Swanson Dec 2018

Robin Hood Politics: An Analysis Of Wealth Redistributive Policies And The Impact Of Political Donations, Marley R. Dizney Swanson

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

Both Democrats and Republicans have taken strong positions on wealth redistribution. But is there variance within the parties? I hypothesize that while moderate non-donors and moderate donors will favor increases in federal spending for such policies at similar rates, both liberal and conservative donors will be less likely to favor spending due to attachment to their personal wealth. This paper analyzes the differences in support for increasing the budgets of five wealth redistributive policies while controlling for political donations: public schools, welfare, aid to the poor, childcare, and Social Security. The research finds that moderates and moderate donors support do …