Structural change, institutional adaptation, and regional polarisation: some lessons from Germany

Mitsch, Frieder (2023) Structural change, institutional adaptation, and regional polarisation: some lessons from Germany. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

The transition to the knowledge economy in advanced democracies such as Germany has seen technological, structural, and institutional changes. These changes have not resulted in a common pattern of development within advanced societies but instead separated them in many ways between increasingly prosperous and marginalised regions. This collection of loosely linked papers explores aspects of these changes and resulting regional polarisation with a focus on Germany. The first paper argues that the transition to the knowledge economy in Germany has led to a more decentralised, flexible institutional landscape, which in turn has resulted in increasing regional divergence. The second paper looks more closely at the political consequences of technological change and shows that young individuals with a lower educational background and in occupations with high automation risk are more likely to vote for the AfD compared to their older or more educated younger peers. The third paper shifts the attention to the redistributive consequences of structural change by examining the political consequences of the green transition with a case study of wind and solar farm expansion plans in Baden-Württemberg. The results show that local authorities with areas designated as potential sites for future wind turbines or solar farms tend to vote less for the Green Party. Furthermore, it is existing Green Party supporters who are significantly more likely to desert the Green Party than their non-affected peers. The fourth paper explores the increasing trends of regionalisation beyond Germany by investigating the growing urban-rural polarisation in political trust in Europe and finds that rural areas are losing faith in national government because they perceive their socio-economic infrastructure to be worse than core areas.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2023 Frieder Mitsch
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe)
Sets:	Departments > Government
Supervisor:	Soskice, David and Lee, Neil
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4681

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