Democratic Diversity - Are There Any Differences Left Between the Political Parties?

On 24 September 2017 Germany elected a new Bundestag. During the election campaign there was frequent criticism that the content lines between the respective political party manifestos were increasingly blurred; and that the positions of the major political parties CDU/CSU and SPD were hardly distinguishable from one another. In response to this criticism, the ifo Institute and the Frankfurter Allgemeine used the September issue of their Economists Panel to ask German economists for their assessments of differences between the Union and the SPD and its impact on democracy in Germany. The majority of survey participants confirmed this criticism and would like to see greater differences between the manifestos of the Union and the SPD. From their point of view, convergence between the major parties is also partly responsible for the AfD's success.