Germany deviance
In East Germany, because of collectivism, centralization, and police power, the state had tremendous power over individuals. The government responded most severely to deviance it considered a political challenge to the SED or to socialism. ... Using state power against political deviance makes the German government uncomfortable. East Germany was often characterized as a totalitarian state, so that the individual is nowhere sheltered from the state power. ... East Germany also tried to prevent isolation of elderly people. ... Political deviance was another matter entirely. ... But despite its tremendous power to sanction deviance, the East German government was caught in a dilemma. ... East Germany was a collectivist society that treated individuals as members of groups, but West Germany was an individualistic society that saw individuals as self-governing actors, free to join groups or remain private. The West German pattern of deviance and social control continues today in the reunified Germany. Western Germans respond to deviance in ways that are both characteristic of parliamentary democracies and characteristically German.