The Party of Democratic Socialism in Germany, which includes the papers from the first conference on the PDS in Britain, brings together a range of scholars and politicians from Germany, Britain, France and the USA. It assesses the present position of the party within the German political system shortly before the second ‘Superwahljahr' in Germany. It also examines its relations with other post-communist parties in Europe and evaluates the state of its relations with the other political parties competing for the left-of-centre vote in the new Länder. Above all the volume is concerned with the question as to whether the PDS, as the successor party to the former ruling communist party in East Germany, represents a modern form of socialism or is merely a populist reaction to the particular concerns of eastern Germans after unification. The volume will be of particular interest to students and scholars of German and politics who are concerned with developments in Germany and Europe after the collapse of communism. There are twelve contributions to the volume, six in German and six in English.