This comprehensive text provides a detailed overview of the party system and politics of one of the most powerful states in the international arena. Noted scholar Gerard Braunthal surveys the parties in the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic after World War II and in the united Germany since 1990. By illustrating the central decisionmaking and stabilizing role the parties have played and continue to play in the political sphere, Braunthal's pioneering book fills a crucial gap in the study of German politics for scholars and students alike.