Book Reviews : Die kranke Hierarchie. By FRIEDER LAUXMANN. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags- Anstalt, 1971. Pp. 184. DM 20.00.)
| Date | 01 December 1971 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591297102400431 |
| Published date | 01 December 1971 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
833
on
each
of
the
parties
give
considerable
depths
of
analysis
and,
each
in
its
own
way,
manage
to
pursue
their
chosen
subjects
well
and
exhaustively.
Rarely
has
a
change
of
coalition
against
the
background
of
electoral
change
been
studied
more
carefully
for
the
benefit
of
students
of
politics
abroad.
At
the
end
of
their
book,
the
authors
chose
to
make
projections
about
likely
problems
and
weaknesses
of
the
Brandt
coalition,
and
about
the
search
for
leader-
ship
in
the
CDU.
Setting
up
such
political
prognoses,
of
course,
is
always
a
hazard-
ous
undertaking.
In
this
case,
however,
it
also
makes
for
enlightening
reflections
on
the
future
of
West
Germany
and
on
the
basic
dilemma
of
the
Brandt
coalition
between
its
domestic
and
foreign
policy
priorities.
In
particular,
with
the
benefit
of
hindsight
of
nearly
two
years
of
Ostpolitik
initiatives,
one
has
to
consider
the
ques-
tion :
If
the
Ostpolitik
succeeds
in
reaching
its
objectives,
what
can
Willy
Brandt
do
for
an
encore?
And,
secondly,
what
can
he
achieve
in
domestic
reforms
given
the
late
start
and
the
disparity
of
aims
between
the
SPD
and
the
FDP?
And
finally,
in
the
event
of
a
CDU/CSU
electoral
triumph
in
1973,
is
this
party
in
its
present
condition
really
regierungsfaehig
in
a
major
country
of
the
Western
world?
University
of
California,
Santa
Barbara
PETER
H.
MERKL
Die
kranke
Hierarchie.
By
FRIEDER
LAUXMANN.
(Stuttgart:
Deutsche
Verlags-
Anstalt,
1971.
Pp.
184.
DM
20.00.)
Frieder
Lauxmann
has
written
a
rare
book.
It
is
unusual,
first,
because
the
author
is
a
veteran
of
the
West
German
bureaucratic
wars,
yet
he
avoids
the
com-
mon
defects
of
the
practitioner’s
literary
efforts;
he
does
not
try
to
be
very
cute
or
very
tough-minded.
He
has
something
to
say
and
he
says
it.
Secondly,
and
most
important
for
the
American
reader,
he
provides
a
re-
markably
painless
introduction
to
the
present
problems
of
German
public
adminis-
tration.
Lauxmann’s
German
is
not
the
tortured
pedantry
which
so
often
frustrates
the
non-linguist.
An
added
blessing
is
that
he
does
not
feel
compelled
to
bury
his
pertinent
points
under
a
bewildering
philosophical
framework.
So
while
the
book
may
not
earn
him
a
call
to
a
great
university,
it
will
at
least
win
him
the
admira-
tion
of
foreigners
who
have
always
suspected
that
it is
possible
to
communicate
clearly
and
concisely
in
German.
All
this
clarity,
of
course,
would
be
wasted
if
the
book
were
a
meandering
diatribe
or
a
wild-eyed
solution
to
all
the
world’s
problems.
Happily,
it
is
a
calm,
thorough
description
of
the
sickness
of
German
administration,
a
sickness
which
means
that
today,
&dquo;the
good
official
is
one
who
knows
that
he
is
not
a
good
official.&dquo;
Lauxmann
indicates
the
decrepit
state
of
the
German
bureaucracy
by
quoting
the
frustrated
Bundesinnenminister
who
was
forced
to
declare
that
&dquo;service
according
to
the
regulations
is
a
violation
of
official
duty.&dquo;
The
bureaucracy,
with
its
strict
hierarchial
arrangement,
is
so
unwieldy
that,
while
it
has
a
positive
social
role
to
play,
it
can
only
react
and
not
decide.
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