ZParl Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen

Government stability in the German Bundestag is traditionally tied to a parliamentary majority and an opposition minority . Nonetheless, minority governments in other Western democracies show that, despite the lack of a parliamentary majority, they...

This study analyzes how German political actors at the federal and state levels perceive the opportunities and risks of political poll reporting . A quantitative online survey of Members of the Bundestag and all German state parliaments shows that...

In a 2020 constitutional referendum on the 20th and 21st of September 2020, Italians voted to reduce the number of members of parliament from 945 to 600 . With a turnout of 51 percent, 70 percent voted in favor of this proposal . The article...

In Germany, there are an estimated 200,000 seats to be filled at the local level in city and municipal councils, city council assemblies, and district councils . It is of fundamental importance for the functioning of local democracy that a...

For the first time, in 2013 the electoral law introduced adjustment seats to compensate for surplus seats at the federal level . For the last two elections, this led to a considerable increase of the Bundestag’s size . The reform debate to shrink...

The German electoral law to the federal parliament was reformed in 2011 and in 2013 . While political scientists have extensively evaluated consequences of these reforms, the role of the public discourse has been largely neglected . We analyze...

According to the Rules of Procedure of the German Bundestag (”GOBT”), every Member of Parliament is granted a five minutes’ verbal explanation of vote . It is granted for nearly every kind of vote in the House . The verbal explanation is often...

The legal framework of the parliamentary right of interpellation and the executive’s obligation to respond to these questions has traditionally been a field of contention between the government and the opposition . The Federal Constitutional Court...

The two general elections held in Italy in 2013 and 2018 were particularly significant: While the anti‑systemic Five Star Movement and the Lega were hugely successful, established parties such as Forza Italia and Partito Democratico fell behind ....

The Federal German Electoral Law allots 299 constituency and 299 party list parliamentary seats or more . The personalized proportional representation (PR) system prescribes party list votes as the dominant principle of seat distribution . In this...

The reform of the electoral law in 2013 introduced adjustment seats that compensate for surplus mandates, resulting in the Bundestag increasing in size . The new electoral law passed by the Grand Coalition in October 2020 will not provide an...

The Grand Coalition in Germany struggled with achieving a substantial reform of the electoral law . The measures it has introduced will presumably fail to prevent an additional increase in the number of Bundestag members after the next election . It...

In May of 1968 the CDU parliamentary party of Schleswig-Holstein’s parliament (Landtag) established a working group to analyze the “youth protests” taking place throughout Germany . In that summer the Landtag constituted a special committee to...

Thuringia’s electoral law stipulates a parity rule for its next state parliament election . Each political party’s electoral list should alternately be filled by female and male candidates . The Constitutional Court of Thuringia revoked the law...

Have the school strikes for the climate (Fridays for Future (FFF) movement) affected political agenda setting in Germany? And does a MP’s party affiliation matter for how often and in what ways he or she mentions the FFF movement? These questions...

Thinking about the role of the state during the corona pandemic may seem like “carrying coals to Newcastle” . After all, times of crisis are considered to be times of the executive . What is needed more than ever, therefore, seems to be a strong...

The AfD was successful in each of the six elections held in 2019/20 (European Parliament, Bremen, Hamburg, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia) . The right-wing party either renewed or in most cases managed to enlarge its parliamentary representation...

What were the central characteristics of those members of parliament who rebuilt parliamentarism in Eastern Germany after reunification? A detailed picture emerges from surveys conducted in 1991/92 and in 1994 . All East German MPs were included in...

The starting position before the elections to the Hamburg parliament was favorable for the governing red-green coalition . The citizens of Hamburg expected an exciting neck-and-neck race between SPD Mayor Peter Tschentscher and his Green challenger...