Abstract
In the first three post-war decades, the party system in the old Federal Republic was concentrated on the two major popular parties, the CDU/CSU and the SPD, and there was a great deal of satisfaction with democracy. In the following decades, the 2.5-party system became a six-party system. This article analyses the economic background of this development. It comes to the conclusion that high growth rates with noticeably rising real incomes led to the concentration, while low growth rates and stagnation or falling real incomes led to the fragmentation of the party system.