Prior to commencement of the subject matter of this paper, "the electoral system of Germany", we must first be sure to have some fundamental understanding of the general political and Governmental state the country is, but also has been in.
Unlike other European political systems, but also the American political system, which have existed for years in the form we find them today, the German political system in its current state is a fairly recent "creation" as it is dated back to, merely, 1949 when the American, British and French zones of occupation constructed the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), and even more recently, twenty years ago, in 1990 East Germany, also joined that Federal Republic.
However, the 1949 constitution is a "continuation" with certain additions one could say, of the original German constitution which was held in 1871 and created a collaboration of Prussia with Europe's other German states, but also the Weimar Constitution of 1919, concerning somewhat of a share of powers between the powers of central Government and local Lander , thus the Basic Law, Grundgesetz, of 1949 consciously and deliberately distributes power between Government and Lander(states).
Another interesting fact in these historical matters, is also that of the importance of Germany's system of Democracy together with the quality of it's political leadership,namely with the significance of chancellors such as Helmut Kohl in office from 1982 to 1988, Helmut Schmidt 1974-1982, Willy Brandt 1969-1974 and finally Konrad Adenauer, ective in the post war period of 1949 to 1963.
The summer of 1990 is also a term of significant historical relevance, despite so recent, to the German political system, as in that period two of the German State's Governments initiated on a one-thousand page treaty in which the terms of the political union they were seeking were defined. The draft gave an explanation on the policies and political structures taking place in West Germany, which were to be extended to the East, but also it explained how several institutions, would be delegated and coordinated, along with which issues could be reserved for handling at a latter time, for instance the abortion policy which at that time was at a certain, peak in conversation.
The parliaments of both German states ratified this treaty and East Germany became a member of the Federal Republic of Germany on October 3 1990 (Art. 23).
The governmental system adopted by West Germany, and outlined in the Basic Law, mainly reflects the desire of somewhat of a transition from the interwar period, but also the period in which dictatorship existed, and democracy was undergoing instability. A federal system of government was considered to be vital for a stable constitutional democracy as was put to act as a direct response to the Nazi period in Germany, which left many "holes" in Democracy.
The creation of West Germany's Basic Law, "The Basic Law", had amongst others the goal to create a climate of political stability and unification, as it establishes, in particular, "the supremacy of political parties in the system of government".
Introduction
An example which I have found very helpful in order to explain the Governmental system of Germany, in reference to the European Union, and vice versa, is that Germany's political system, and overall delegation of states, is the same as the European Union, meaning that there is a head of State, such as the European Parliament, and many delegations of states, each country, which can make decisions and take actions on their own, but are lead, mainly by the head, which sets out certain provisions, and regulations for one to abide with.
The German federation consists of sixteen (16) federal states, which each has its own government, parliament and Constitution. The Federal Governemnt comprises the highest state authority; State representation at a Federal level but also participation in Federal legislation is accomplished through the agency of the Bundesrat.
The head of state is the President, whom has a maxim of two five-year terms in office, and is elected by the Federal Convention, consisting of all members of the Bundestag and an equal number of members nominated by state legislatures.
The head of the government on the other hand is the Chancellor, equivalent to the "Prime Minister" of other states. In order to ensure that a stable government is established, election of the chancellor occurs every four years, after national elections take place, and after convocation of the new members of the Bundestag. In this election however a majority of all elected members of the Bundestag must be achieved, as opposed to the mere majority in the case of Chancellor.
Government of Germany
A term we have seen above, but have not yet explained its meaning is that of the Bundestag and Bundesrat.
The Bundestag is what we call the lower house, in the German political system; Its members are elected for four-year terms. The method used for the election of the Bundestag is the MMPR, Mixed Member Proportional Representation, a rather complicated system ,however offering a proportional result.
A significant difference with the Bundestag, in comparison to the British House of Commons for instance, is that, not much time is spent serving constituents. That difference mainly occurs from the fact that only 50% of Bundestag members are elected to represent a certain geographical period as a direct response to voting, thus representatives must be, in a way, delegated. Therefore, the Bundestag is the most important organ of the legislative branch, in the Federation, since under the German federal system, the Lander, hold a considerable share of the powers of state.
The Bundestag, since its creation, has shown a significant growth increase, mainly through the addition of a further 144 representatives, but also, and more importantly due to the unification which took place, along with further expansion in later years, leading to a number of 672 deputies.
The German Bundestag holds the most important structures of organization, these are parliamentary groups known as Fraktions, and are basically formed by every political party which holds a place of representation in the chamber.The number of seats each Fraktion holdsshows the extent of representation it has as an executive body of the Bundestag, a fact common in almost all parliamentary sessions.In addition, the head of the largest Fraktion, i.e the Fraktion with most chairs delegations and administrative duties, is also named President of the Bundestag.
The leadership of each Fraktion consists of, as in every democratic society, the parliamentary leader of that Fraktion, several deputies, equal to the British MP's and an executive committee, obviously for reasons of executive administrations. The responsibilities of the leadership, among others, is to represent the Fraktion, lead parliamentary activities, and generally maintain the correct representation held by orchestrating the party's political movements.
The executive bodies of the Bundestag on the other hand, consisting of the Fraktions and their representatives as we have mentioned above,are the Presidium, and the Council of Elders. The council consists of the head of the Bundestag, derived from the method mentioned above, along with the most senior representatives of the Fraktions which have the most members in chamber,relevant to the power and strength of that party.
The council is that which coordinates and determines the daily legislative agenda, and assigns each committee's chairpersons depending on the representation of each party. In addition, the council acts as a "forum for interparty negotiations on specific legislation and procedural issues". Furthermore,the routine administration of the Bundestag, which includes research and clerical activities, is an activity of the Presidium which is made of the chamber's presidents and vice-presidents.
Most legislative procedures in the Bundestag are done by standing committees,which we find to be an uncommon practice for most European parliamentary systems. The amount of committees "approximates the number of federal ministries, and the titles of each are similar." The amount of chairs a single committee holds, along with the relevant membership of that committee reflects the relative strength of the parties in the chamber. It could be found that the US Congress acts in a similar way, however, in the US all standing committees are chaired by the members of the majority party, whereas the German system allows for members of opposing parties to chair a number of such committees
Even though most legislation is actually enacted by the executive branch, the Bundestag finds the legislative function, to be that of most importance to the state and government as a whole. The Bundestag focuses mostly on the assesment of the governments legislative program, along with sometimes amending such programs, in which the committees also play a vital role.
Plenary sessions provide a forum for members to engage in public debate on legislative issues, but this is usually the case when the legislation trying to be passed, or simply conveyed upon, is of some significant matter to the state, and has issues of utmost importance.
Further responsibilities taken on by the Bundestag include the selection of a Federal Chancellor and overseeing the executive branch on both substantive policy issues, but also on routine administration .The methods incorporated to "check" executive power are mainly binding legislation, public debates upon Government policy, taking on investigations, and in some cases a direct questioning focussing on the Chancellor or cabinet officials.
An example of the previous statements made could be found in the Fragestunde; The Bundestag has the authority to commence a question hour, the fragestunde, in which Government representatives are to respond to a submitted, written question, from a parliamentary member. Members may ask relevant questions during this fragestunde. The questions may be of relevance to a major policy issue, but also to a mere constituent's problem.In the past years use of this question hour has increased significantly, and this is understood as opposition parties have the right to do so, and thus, in a sense, are able to exercise their parliamentary right to "scrutinize government actions".( Politics in Germany, Russel J. Dalton, University of California)
The upper house of the German government, and second legislative chamber is the Bundesrat, the federal body in which the sixteen Lander governments are directly represented, and exemplifies Germany's federalist system of government.
As the Bundesrat is a fairly smaller organizational asset of government in comparison to the Bundestag, it does not require the same extensive structure of the lower house, and typically schedules plenary sessions once a month in reference to legislation prepared in relevant committees, where the Bundestag has more than fifty such sessions a year.
Furthermore, and again signifying a difference to the Bundestag, the Bundesrat members rarely attend the plenary sessions and appoint certain civil servants to attend them, an option outlined in the terms of the Basic Law, as they wish to spend more time in the capitals of each ones Lander, rather than in the Federal capital.
The Bundesrat "to the untrained eye" seems at a first glance to be similar to all other upper houses in federal states, such as the US, as the Bundestag is a body representing all the German lander(states), however the German system has two significant fundamental differences which must be mentioned.
i) The members of the Bundesrat are not selected through elections, neither by the method of popular vote, nor by the state parliaments, but are actual members of the state cabinets which have the power of appointment and removal at any time.
ii) The states do not have representation by an equal member of delegates, as a factor in order to provide a "Lander" with delegates is its population. The votes allocation is based upon the population and the size of each state, giving like this certain guidelines and provisions in respect to the votes each state may give, and the size of the delegation which may be sent. The way the system works returns a result which shows that sixteen (16) states have between three(3) and six(6) delegates.
This unusual method gives a total of sixty-nine(69) votes in the Bundesrat and then the state cabinet may appoint as many delegates as the state has votes, but is by no means obligated to do so; The cabinet has the power to restrict the state delegation even to one singe delegate.
