Federal Republic of Germany

Contours: Written constitution: Basic Law, drafted in 1949 A republic: Head of state is an indirectly elected president A federal parliamentary system: –16 provinces (Laender, singular: land) not only share in sovereignty but are directly represented in the upper chamber of parliament, the Bundesrat (Federal Council) –Chancellor (head of government) is elected by the Bundestag (lower house) and can be removed by it – though only by elected a successor (positive vote of no-confidence)

Constitution Basic Law drafted as a ‘temporary’ constitution for the three Western zones Attempt to re-found and stabilize liberal democracy: –Recourse to earlier constitutional traditions: Federalism (from imperial period ( ) Rechtstaat: living under a ‘state of law’ –Articles on rights and duties of citizens at the start –Safeguards: Strict limitation of president’s power Detailed prescription of the way in which the chancellor is selected and removed Possibility of banning anti-democratic groups: parties expected to contribute to formation of democratic will

German politics in practice: A consensus-seeking rather than an adversarial democracy Difficult for any one group or party to impose its will, without first obtaining the consent of others: –Multiparty politics and proportional representation mean that no single party has a majority: coalitions needed in order to elect the chancellor –Representation of laender in Bundesrat (Federal Council) gives them a voice in government policy: The laender, collectively, have an absolute veto over all matters affecting them and suspensive (delaying) veto over all other matters

Party system: Five parties represented in the Bundestag (lower house): –Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), former East German Communists –Greens –Social Democratic Party (SPD) –Free Democratic Party (FDP) –Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Christian Social Union (CSU) – in Bavaria

Elections to the Bundestag Via an additional member system (mixed member proportional or MMP) –Voters cast two simultaneous votes: One or a candidate in a single member district a second for a party list –Half the members are elected in single-member districts with a plurality rule (first past the post, as in Britain or Canada) –The second half are elected via proportional representation –Seats are allocated on the second ballot so that the final makeup of the Bundestag is proportional to the vote received by parties winning 5% of the vote on the second ballot or Three seats on the first ballot

Effects: Five percent threshold (introduced in 1953) eliminates most smaller parties –Germany ends up with a three party system – Social Democrats, Free Democrats, Christian Democrats –Augmented by Greens in 1983, and ex-Communists (PDS) after reunification in 1990 Neither of the larger parties (SPD, CDU has a parliamentary majority All governments are coalition governments