ZParl Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen

There are two possible models for second chambers, which differ in terms of institutional arrangements and actor behaviour . In the German “Council Model“, Bundesrat members are appointed by subnational governments and they act as instructed...

In 2017, the Tea Party reached its goals when its ideology changed both American conservatism and the Republican Party . It also changed politics in Congress and in Donald Trump they found a president who implemented their deregulation goals ....

Before the French parliamentary elections in 2017, a pattern that had become expected since 2002 seemed endangered . Since the early 2000s, presidents had always managed to gain a majority at the parliamentary elections held shortly after their own...

None of the past presidential elections of the Fifth Republic has been shaped by such peculiarities as the last one . For one, President François Hollande did not run for a second term because of poor survey data . For another, the primary...

A caveat for any analysis dealing with party politics in the German Bundesrat has been the largely missing documentation of individual votes of federal states’ governments in the plenary sessions . By focusing on accessible, well-documented...

The June 2017 British Parliamentary Election was meant to strengthen the hand of Prime Minister Theresa May in the Brexit negotiations . The opposite was the case . The Conservatives, who lost their parliamentary majority, now depend on the support...

Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election may have taken many analysts and even scholars by surprise . Taking on the entirety of the Republican establishment, the real estate billionaire nonetheless managed to secure his party’s...

In Italy the 1948 post-war constitution was inspired by a great democratic and social mission . But the establishment of the state was more centralistic . Power in Rome was shared by a multitude of parties centred around the Democrazia Cristiana...

In Germany, the legislative process is characterized by a balance of interests between the federation and the Länder as well as between the - potentially incongruent - political majorities at both state levels . It is in particular the Bundesrat...

In Germany, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat have adopted a new system of intergovernmental fiscal relations from 2020 onwards that will considerably change the underlying federal structure . The shift from a “fraternal” to a “paternal”...

In its ruling of January, 17 2017, the Federal Constitutional Court decided that the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) cannot be prohibited because there are no indications that it will succeed in achieving its anti-constitutional aims ....

Apart from some turbulence in the middle of the legislative period, the “Coastal Coalition”, including the SPD, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and the SSW, was able to follow a stable and smooth course . Results in many previous elections in...

The principle of “effective functioning of the opposition” in parliament is well recognized in German constitutional debates . It gained new interest due to the forming of a “Qualified Grand Coalition” (supported by more than 75 percent of...

Interpretation and application of constitutional law are often influenced by theoretical presuppositions, which then finally determine the content of constitutional law . In particular this can be observed in the periphery of the democratic...

The role of parliamentary opposition in the German Bundestag is under scrutiny . With the establishment of a Grand Coalition and ongoing party fragmentation, how can an opposition, which lacks to achieve the required quorums, be an effective one?...

When researching the history of constitutions since 1945, topics chosen have often been the executive branch or the national parliament (Bundestag) while at the same time the history and the development of the state parliaments have been seriously...

How were political parties in the political philosophy of the German pre-March (“Vormärz”) 1815 till 1848 perceived? A revision of some long-standing prejudices in favor of a more benign view on the pre-March concept of political parties is...

The constitutional right of parliament to request information from the government is a defining part of the system of checks and balances within the separation of powers between the executive and the legislative branch . Most importantly, the scope...

From 1945 to the late 1980s, Austrian parliamentarism was characterized by coalition governments that secured a significantly high number of seats in parliament . Ever since, opposition parties have continuously gained seats and the political party...

In what ways do political parties shape policymaking in the German single states? This question is analyzed by the interrelation of government coalitions and policy formulation in the field of animal welfare policy . The study reveals that major...