ZParl Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen

According to the jurisdiction of the German Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) the number of parliamentary functions with additional position-related allowances is limited to prominent positions, such as the President and Vice-President of...

The Pirate Party organisations in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Berlin use the Internet to implement intraparty Liquid Democracy. Their aim is to give as many party members as possible the opportunity to participate in the party’s decision making...

After entering the Berlin state parliament, the Pirate Party intended to do many things “differently”, especially in the fields of transparency, involvement of party members, hierarchy within the parliamentary group, and party discipline. They...

The “Independent Commission on Legal Issues of Members of Parliament” (Unabhängige Kommission zu Fragen des Abgeordnetenrechts) was installed by the German Bundestag to review the legal status of the MPs and their financial allowances. The...

The ruling of the German Federal Constitutional Court’s on the election threshold of the European Electoral Law fails to clearly establish an Electoral Law that can provide for a functional and operational parliament. Numerous national centered...

The Independent Commission was installed to submit new proposals on how to remunerate members of the German Bundestag. Welcomed by a vast majority of MPs, the Commission’s report attracted fierce public reactions. Documented in press articles,...

Germany is still in a state of consternation: The murders for which members of the National Socialist Underground (NSU) are standing on trial currently have set the political scene in turmoil, and their shock waves have rocked the society like no...

In Schleswig-Holstein, one of the 16 German federal states (Länder), the Danish national minority’s political participation is ensured by the South Schleswig Voters’ Association (Südschleswigsche Wählerverband, SSW) which is exempted from the...

In 2013 the so-called “kinship affair” (Verwandtenaffäre) shook the Bavarian parliament and triggered the revision of important legal provisions regarding Members of Parliament and led to implementing severe restrictions. Under the new law it...