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Societal Transformation and the Creation of a Regional Party: The PDS as a Regional Actor in Eastern Germany

This paper examines the position of the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) within unified Germany. The transformation of the GDR's political, economic and societal structures, coupled with the legacy of 40 years of state socialism, has created space for a regional party to establish itself on the territory of the former East Germany. The manner and means that the transformation has taken have enabled a process of separate identity-creation to begin in eastern Germany, and the PDS has mobilised territorial difference in order to carve a new niche as an eastern German interest party. The PDS, the heir to the SED dictatorship, has moulded itself into a strong regional actor on the basis of a reinvigorated societal cleavage along the former border − and appears to have successfully secured a place in the German political landscape for at least the next generation.