The SPD after Brandt: Problems of integration in a changing Urban society
Since 1982, the electoral fortunes of the SPD have followed a downward trend, accompanied by a pervasive malaise and uncertainty regarding coalitions with the Greens. The strategic choice before the SPD is mirrored by the analogous dilemma of the CDU/CSU with regard to the FDP. The problems of integrating the ‘two or more SPDs’ in a rapidly changing urban society are aggravated by the sectarian New Left in the big cities. Only a new consensus based on widely popular themes can lead the SPD back into power.
The West German social democrats in opposition 1982–86
Entering opposition, political parties face tasks of renewal and regeneration, the success of which is usually a prerequisite of their return to government office. For the SPD (1982–86), these tasks were: programmatic renewal, the consolidation of internal party cohesion, the restoration of relations with organised labour and elite regeneration. In addition to these tasks of structural renewal, opposition parties must evolve a parliamentary strategy and undertake a realignment towards key groups in the electorale. It is argued here that the SPD embarked on the exercise of renewal and regeneration with more emphasis on continuity than on change. Adopting a short‐term perspective on a return to government, the party looked to makeshift expedients instead of long‐term solutions, postponing change and sidestepping controversial or divisive questions. Consequently, in the wake of its electoral defeat in January 1987, the party faces a ‘crisis of opposition’ as acute as in 1983, if not more so.
Multi-layer inpainting on Chinese artwork
Digital inpainting uses spatial or frequency information to restore partially damaged/removed photos and artworks. Most restoration algorithms take a picture as a single layer. We propose a new approach, which subdivides a Chinese painting into several layers. Each layer is inpainted separately. The layer fusion mechanism then finds the optimal inpaint among layers, which are restored layer-bylayer. We apply the algorithm on Chinese and western drawing. The result shows a high PSNR value as well as a high user satisfaction. The demonstration of our work is available at: http://www.mine.tku.edu.tw/demos/inpaint.