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East Germany THE STATE APPARATUS
Honecker has defined the socialist state as the chief
instrument for executing the public policy of the "toiling masses
under the leadership of the working class." At the Tenth Party
Congress in 1981, Honecker declared the "all-around strengthening
of the socialist state an important task of the 1980s." An
editorial in a subsequent issue of Neues Deutschland
reiterated that the "all-around strengthening of the socialist
state is and remains for our party a basic issue of the
revolution. . . . Without a strong and well-functioning socialist
state there can be socialist achievements for the people."
Although it is not the main center of political power, the
state has an important political function insofar as it serves as
the chief instrument through which the party seeks to implement
its programs and achieve special social, economic, and political
goals. Such a cooperative effort requires a well-elaborated
system of coordination between the two entities. The party
determines the boundaries within which the state is required to
act. The need to coordinate the activities and functions of the
party and state apparatuses has resulted in a significant degree
of overlap in the policy area as well as in the personnel of both
organizations (see
table 12, Appendix A). Both apparatuses are
responsible for a variety of similar activities; however, while
the party is responsible for setting up the general guidelines
and ideological content of specific policies and programs, the
state is given the legal authority to execute them and to monitor
their implementation on all levels of the hierarchy.
The division of authority between party and state often
results in conflict. Such conflict is based less on differences
in ideology between members of the two apparatuses than on the
issue of control and the most effective way of achieving the
goals toward which the party's programs and policies are
directed. However, the overlapping of membership between the
party and state apparatuses--especially between their respective
executive organs such as the SED Central Committee and the
Council of Ministers--makes such a conflict manageable. Moreover,
conflict between the two organizations is often the consequence
of disagreement within the various branches of the party and
state.
Data as of July 1987
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