By Fiona Zumtobel
Feb. 2013
Although in Descartes, ‘Discourse on Method’ in 1637,
wrote, “Good sense is the most evenly shared thing in the world, for each of
us…” stating that reason is naturally equal in all human beings, he nonetheless
acknowledges that to get to the truth, you need diverse lines of reasoning, and
better evidence/ data. It is not enough to have a good line or mind, one has to
conduct it well to reach the truth.
What this research paper will try to do is to improve
both your and my lines of reasoning through the qualitative method of
biographical research.
Biographical method is a type of scientific research
that aims to answer a particular question, and through your findings it allows
you to make a particular inference.
With the use of biographical method, one could obtain
culturally specific information about values, opinion, behaviors and social
contexts about particular of particular social groups or even populations.
I want to analyze how Angela Merkel’s youth in East
Germany has shaped her personal character in the political field.
I want to
embed the life story of Angela Merkel with a wider historical context. The
underlying issue is that through Merkel scientific mind Germany has been able
to take rational decisions in European and world politics.
The paper consists of four separate sections. The
first explains the biographical approach. The second looks at Angela Merkel’s
biography. The third connects Merkel’s past to her current political
standpoint. The fourth section illustrates the sampling error calculation
within my research.
Through the use non-standardized interviews I was able
to critically test the existing bias of my interviewees.
Descartes sacred rule is to never accept anything that
is true, until evidently so. Therefore, with this research paper, I do not want
readers to accept this as the truth, but merely as a possible truth.
Origins of Qualitative
Method
The Chicago school
is the founding father of sociology. Sociology is the
study of social human behaviour. Sociology is a social science that generates
knowledge through pratical research methods and close critical analysis.
The biographical method was their
dominant approach. The method was based on personal life records.
The method was
very counter-intuitive as it took a series of criminals, homosexuals and
prostitutes as cases/samples instead of ordinary people. By sympathizing with
them, rather than judging them they were able to collect personal documents,
interviews, letters and diaries. This facilitated to obtain completely holistic
results.
Advantages of the
biographical method
This method is
advantageous for the researcher because data gathering is personally
meaningful, it does not rely on funding, and you are able to write about
something that is real but most importantly it is the only type of research
where you can make a moral judgment. The benefits of this method for the
interviewees is that it gives a voice to these people, it makes them feel
important, like they can generate something through their lines of reasoning. It
gives interviewees the opportunity to teach and allows them to enjoy speaking
to people out of their “circle”.
For Readers, it is
the most exciting type of research, as it is the closest form of fiction.
Disadvantages of the
biographical method
It requires a lot
of patience, and you experience a lot of rejection.
It is difficult
for the researcher to randomly select interviewees; in particular if you find
yourself in a country that may not know so much about the person you wish to
collect information from. It is
difficult to make a meaningful inference. The sampling error will always be
very high because we ask open questions, instead of closed ones.
Background Of
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Kasner was born in Hamburg on July 17th
1954. Her father, Horst Kasner (1926-2011) was a Lutheran minister, who studied
teology at the university of Heidelberg. Merkel’s mother Herlind (1928) was a born
in Danzig and taught of Latin and English. Angela has two younger siblings,
Marcus who was born in 1957 and Irene who was born in 1964.The Protestant
Church asked Horst to move from Hamburg to Templin; situated in 50 Miles north
of Berlin, which is East Germany. Merkels father spent his career in
collaboration with the East German state to try to tranquilize the recently
divided country. The family moved to Templin when Angela was only three months
old. In 1961, when the Berlin Wall was erected, the family
was closed off from all the developments and liberties that were put in place
in Germany after the world war II.
Angela was a brilliant student, receiving prizes for her
Russian and mathematics accomplishments. She learned Russian fluently at
school. She was a participant in the Free German Youth Movement. It was never
told that Merkel had non-conformist views on the communist party in East
Germany. In an interview with Rolls however she stated that, “One learned to
keep quite. That was one of the strategies of survival, as is today”. Angela
finished her secondary school with a grade point average of 1.0, which is 100%
in the German school system. She would of liked to become a translator, but her
father profession denied her that. Instead, she studied Physics at the Leipzig
University from the years 1973-1978. Whilst
attenting university, Merkel worked at the central Institute for Physical
Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin. In 1977, at the age of 23
Angela Kasner married Ulrich Merkel. Only 5 years later the couple divorced,
without having produced any offspring.
Throughout the 80’s significant changes took place in both Germany and the Soviet Union. Merkel supported the « Glasnost » movement, which supported democracy and openess. When the berlin Wall came down in 1989, Merkel left her scientific career and began her political one. Merkel joined the Demokratischer Aufbruch and supported the reunification of Germany, which was introduced by the wave of capitalism, brought about by the United States. Consequent of East Germany’s first elections Merkel became a press spokeswoman for the pre-unification interim government under leader Lothar de Maiziére. Once Unification occurred in 1990, the Demokratischer Aufbruch was integrated into the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), The party which would one day rule Germany by the side of Merkel herself.
Analysis- Connecting Merkel’s Past to her present
Politics
Merkel is the
leader of the Christian Democratic Party in Germany, which was founded at the
end of World War II in 1945, whose ideology is both democracy and liberal
conservatism. Its political position is center right.
Angela Merkel
entered the political realm when the berlin Wall came down, in 1989. She fought
for the unification of Germany. In a similar way, she is fighting for the
unification of Europe today, by declaring the importance of the Eurozone
avoiding the Greek exit. For Merkel, the Greek-German relationship it is more
than simply a monetary union, it is a political union. It is nonetheless also
clear, as the leader of Germany’s Economic Powerhouse, she understands that
will the euro-break up the Export Superpower would fall from its chair in a
matter of second.
Is it as Thomas
Hobbes formulated a problem of justice and sovereignty? Where sovereignty is
always put before justice and Merkel only wants to save the Eurozone to stay in
control? Perhaps. Nonetheless it is clear that Merkel’s upbringing in East
Germany, has taught her the grave consequences both economically and socially
of living in a disunity. The constant need for unity may be a deeply imbedded psychological
value that she adopted in her youth.
Merkel’s
decision-making process, rules out dramatic and speedy fixes. Her approach is
that of a scientist. As a scientist,
patience, close observation and analysis are the key to success. A scientist
learns that a quick and unsought experiment will most probably lead to a failed
one. In science, you collect
your data, either through observation or through experiments. You analyze what
will work, and what will not work.
For Merkel
Communism, did not work, she stated in an interview with Rolls, that in the East,
no one pushed to excel.
As soon as Merkel
took office, they named her after Margaret Thatcher “Die Eisen Frau” (The Iron Lady)
because it was her goal to increase productivity and raise employment through
the deregulation of markets. It is a pure fact that economies under communism
have failed to meet the levels efficiency and innovation like those countries
under capitalism, perhaps, with the exception of China today, who may meet and
exceed efficiency levels, but at a very high social cost and constant human
right violations. Merkel’s fight for economic success may also have come from
her experience of living under an inefficient one.
Many people in
Germany critique Merkel for being authoritarian, dispassionate and too much of
a centrist. Although many people respect her, there are few people that show
amazement towards her.
All her critiques
are very closely related to the political ambience she was grew up in.
Communists and socialist had to be authoritarian figures in this recently
confused and separated country. The East needed to erect strong authorities to
prevent social revolutions, and chaos from further dismantling the new
ideology. Signs of protests would only be signs of weakness within newly
founded system. The Eurozone is in crisis, and when, strong authorities keep
the system from collapsing as a whole.
The strongest
European nation was the power to decide upon Greek and Europe’s fate. It has
always been survival of the fittest.
If Angela Merkel had
mixed sentiments about the Greek Exit, then other Nations would not know what
to think and what to do. Many Nations take Germany as a role model and
therefore agree with that Merkel has to say.
People at the too
must have clear and precise views because otherwise the system is bound to
collapse. A scientist cannot have many different hypotheses for one case. It
needs to have one clear hypothesis and test it. If the hypothesis fails then it
is still useful as a guideline for what not to do. We sometimes need to be reminded
of what works and what does not work to prevent repeated mistakes. Merkel most
certainly lived within an area where politically, socially and economically the
system failed. Her past observations and experiments has taught her that the
Greek exit is out of the question.
Another critique
by both German citizens and by Europeans is that Angela Merkel fails to place
strong men at her side in Politics. Although her bibliography tells us very
little about her relationships with her husband or her brother, or even father
it is, nonetheless clear as the first female German Chancellor in history it is
only normal to adopt some sort of a protective instinct. For the first time in
history, a woman can rule Germany. Most especially given her roots, Polish mother,
and upbringing in an East Germany. Her fear of powerful men comes as a natural
psychological instinct, which was embedded in our culture as result of sexual
prejudice in the past.
Conclusion
My hypothesis argues that Angela Merkel’s upbringing
in East Germany has shaped her to become the most suitable Chancellor to lead
Germany through these difficult times.
Through the method of observation, and data gathering,
I have come to confirm my hypothesis. Angela Merkel has learnt through her
youth in East Germany that in hard times you cannot take quick and easy
decisions to see successful results. There is no such thing as an easy road, in
the European crisis. Angela Merkel has learnt, through her experience as a
physician and chemist to adopt a scientific approach to politics, where close
observation and analysis can lead to stronger results in the future.
In the Eurozone, she acknowledges the long and tough
times in the present to promote a long run solution in the future.
Merkel’s authority helps calm chaos in difficult
times, and her centricity gives opportunity to diverse ideas and opinions in
the political arena. Her “impassionate” character as critics call her, I
believe can only aid her to overcome any bias or prejudice in the political
arena.
The inference I am making about Angela Merkel in
politics, is that sometimes different figures from the different sex, and from
growing up in different political atmospheres and scientific educational
background can help you strengthen the right political environment. Merkel’s
communist experience can help her prioritize what political, economical and
social values be must pursue and fight for.
Her gender may help prevent too quick and irrational
decisions, unlike George W. Bush.
Most
importantly her scientific background will help identify the importance of
analysis and careful study of particular events, where the wrong decisions
through globalization affect every nation on the globe.
Entradas
