The Party of Democratic Socialism's electoral prowess reflects the suc
cess other reformed communist parties are having with voters disillusi
oned with the changes since 1989. This article seeks to explain why it
is doing so well, what kind of people are drawn to it, and what its s
uccess tells us about the new eastern political culture and the conseq
uences of unification. Its future prospects depend on how quickly the
two parts of Germany become integrated and how effectively the other p
arties respond to eastern Germans' feelings. PDS success is a product
of eastern German attitudes and conditions. It thrives on the tensions
between east and west and on east Germans asserting their determinati
on to be different from west Germans. But it will experience difficult
y in continuing to derive its identity from a mixture of nostalgia for
certain aspects of the GDR and animosity toward western Germans. With
its path to western voters blocked, with growing intraparty disunity,
and with a leader absorbed by charges that he had been a Stasi collab
orator, the PDS faces a serious struggle to survive in the 21st centur
y as a long-term significant political force. Copyright (C) 1996 The R
egents of the University of California