Democratic
It was Sir Winston Churchill who once declared both his respect and distaste for the democratic system of government. German democracy is based on a solid political system controlled by an unusually strict balance of power and a complex written constitution originally created during the late forties.
This has favoured decades of slow, sometimes sluggish yet stable social development that included both extreme left wing demonstrations during the sixties and the defeat of extremist terrorism in the seventies.
There can be no doubt that the populace in this country love democracy. Moreover the importance of the democratic system is still a topic firmly on the agenda of the media today. And with its highly complicated proportional representation, Germany is a modern day experiment in purist democratic systems. Many say that the difficulties the country faces are due to this system. Over the years, minority parties have had their say in Parliament in almost every Government, both locally and nationally.
German politicians still tend to be mostly male and aged. However, the country has come a long way in recent years with a middle aged female prime minister. Her cabinet includes a minister of the interior who is confined to his wheelchair and also a gay foreign minister, an aristocratic defence minister and a health minister of Asian origins, that all belong to a new generation. Highly remarkable!