Becoming Madame Chancellor: Angela Merkel and the Berlin Republic by Joyce Marie Mushaben (review)

She has been at the helm of Germany for twelve years, at the top of Forbes's list of the most powerful women in the world eleven times, only the fourth woman to be Time Magazine's Person of the Year, and, for some years, the person world leaders call when they want to speak to Europe. By now, the world knows the basic outlines of Merkel's unusual rise to power and her penchant for cautious, consensus-driven decisionmaking. Less is known, however, about why and how her background influences Merkel's leadership style and policy preferences. Specifically, has Madam Chancellor contributed to increasing diversity and inclusion in Europe's largest country? Has she made a difference in Germany's foreign relations and in the European integration project? Joyce Mushaben's answers to each of these questions is an emphatic "yes." In particular, she asserts, "although she refuses to label herself a feminist, I maintain that Merkel has done more to modernize gender roles in united Germany than all of her predecessors" (8).

Mushaben is a maven of German politics and society and, perhaps unlike Merkel, brings a gender-conscious perspective to discussions of power, representation, and policy. Informed by years of research on German politics, Mushaben's newest book makes the case that "Merkel stands as the embodiment of demographic transformation processes that have taken root across the country and the continent since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989" (3).

Mushaben's study takes a triple-track approach, exploring Merkel's leadership, generational and value shifts, and the evolution of several key domestic and foreign policies. The author examines Merkel's reconfiguration of the Berlin Republic and her transformative leadership through case studies of the 2015 decision to open the door to refugees, the Energiewende in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster, the management of the Euro crisis, and foreign relations with Israel and Russia. Each chapter blends thick description with thoughtful conceptualization and analysis. In contrast to those who cast the chancellor as a hesitant, visionless, Biedermeier figure, Mushaben provides a compelling narrative of clear principles and purpose and deft leadership. Drawing on concepts such as descriptive, substantive, and symbolic (or "transformational") representation and critical mass theory, Mushaben explains Merkel's "politics of small steps." Mushaben argues that the culmination of small steps has been significant progress in breaking "the mold regarding outdated leadership models" (309). While the author does not engage with the literature on political elites or executive leadership style in Germany, her "unabashedly qualitative and eclectic approach" (6) has much to offer scholars of political leadership as well as advanced students of German and European politics and societies.

Ultimately, Mushaben poses the question of why Merkel does not consider herself a feminist. Her answer is that "a woman leader need not openly and regularly declare herself a feminist in order to 'make a difference'" (312). One could argue that this lets Merkel off the hook: what is it about the goals of feminism that Merkel cannot or will not embrace? Why hasn't this leader leveraged the intersectionality of her gender and her unusual background or used her position of power or her moderne christliche worldview to challenge traditional patterns of authority and paternalism more perceptibly? Newly restored as chancellor, the story of Angela Merkel and the Berlin Republic continues.