Volume 47 (2016), Edition 2

Due to the great successes of the AfD in the three state elections of March 2016 there is an intensified discussion about the characteristics of the AfD’s electorate at the national level. Who votes for the AfD? Are there any social groups with an...

More and more often since the early 1990s there are complaints about democratic and legitimacy deficits of the European Union . In the EU member states new parties took up this issue. In the literature this new political line is termed...

Although electoral participation has decreased especially in the group of young adults in recent years, online participation may lead to more political engagement of young people. By asking for their activities in conventional and unconventional...

Due to the striking distance between citizens and politicians within their communities, the local level offers the best possibilities for political participation. However, protests such as “Stuttgart 21” suggest that the crisis of representative...

Direct democracy in German local politics is a topic, which is widely discussed in science and politics today facing questions of increasing input and output legitimacy of representative democracy. At the same time empirical knowledge about the...

The electoral system to the German Bundestag may not only lead to unnecessary enlargements of parliament but it is also not focused systematically on reducing the intraparty distortions. Those distortions played a substantial role in the political...

If the German electoral system would have been designed in a planning-related manner, it could have taken on several forms - but it most certainly would not look the way it currently looks. Despite the seeming lack of creativity and drive concerning...

Nudging refers to a much-debated political steering approach that relies on gentle interventions in decision architectures of individuals with the aim to shape their behaviour in a direction that is beneficial for them and/or for the society as a...