GERMAN UNIFICATION AND BUREAUCRATIC TRANSFORMATION

This paper elaborates the role of bureaucracy in the process of German unification since 1990, first by analyzing the interplay between poli tics and ministerial bureaucracy in negotiating the unification treaty including its civil service related part with the German Democratic R epublic; second, by describing the implementation of administration po licy (comprising personnel and organization policies), the elite impor t and transfer of administrative structures from the west are emphasiz ed as essential elements in transforming the East German polity. Struc tural conservatism rather than innovation can be observed as a result. With respect to the broader topic of regime change, elites, and burea ucracy, it is argued that, owing to the dual nature of transition in E ast Germany (implosion plus unification), the availability of a counte r-bureaucracy and an external elite reservoir (as well as western capi tal) accounts for the absence of political resistance of the old appar atuses that presently bother East European countries. However, program matic and financial policies have to accompany administration policy t o become fully effective.