"This is an excellent collection of first-rate scholarly analyses of German politics and major domestic and EU government policies before and especially during the Grand Coalition of 2005-2009 and the chancellorship of Angela Merkel. It also covers the issues and results of the 2009 election and offers some preliminary and trenchant assessments of the new CDU/CSU-FDP coalition and the challenges ... Read morefaced by this surprisingly contentious combination of political "allies." Wide-ranging but thorough and informative contributions to the literature on German politics from 2005 to 2010." - Arthur B. Gunlicks, Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, University of Richmond, VA "If you want to find out all the ins and outs, advantages and disadvantages, peculiarities and generalities, genealogies and legacies of Germany's most recent GRAND COALITION, this is your book! In an array of insightful and informative essays, the erudite authors succeed to enlighten us about this odd, yet also quite normal, system of governance. I recommend this book to scholars of Germany, Europe and comparative politics as a whole." - Andrei S. Markovits, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Karl W. Deutsch Collegiate Professor of Comparative Politics and German Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor "The book gives an in-depth and authoritative assessment of the legacies of the second Grand Coalition experiment in Germany, the campaign and outcome of the federal election of 2009, and the challenges of the Christian Democratic-Liberal coalition in office since 2009. Germany after the Grand Coalition is an essential reading for everyone interested in the political mechanisms which drive present day s politics and policy in Germany." - Manfred G. Schmidt, Professor in Political Science at the University of Heidelberg Show Less