Volume 45 (2014), Edition 2

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...

Since 1968 Members of the German Bundestag (MdB) are entitled to old-age benefits, which since 1977 are the equivalent to those of civil servants. In 2011, the “Independent Commission on Legal Issues of Members of Parliament” (Unabhängige...

Members of the German Bundestag and members of the state legislatures (Landesparlamente) receive a salary for their mandate (so-called remuneration). They are also entitled to so-called Members’ allowances (Amtsausstattung), which consist of...

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,...

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...

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...

In the election to the Bavarian state parliament on September 2013, Premier Horst Seehofer and his Christian Social Union (CSU) won 47.7 percent of the total vote. They are once again able to form a majority/one-party government in the Bavarian...

Although Hesse had left the brief interregnum of so-called “Hessian peculiarities” after the 2009 state elections and returned to a bloc-based black-yellow government of CDU and FDP, the legislative term was nevertheless turbulent. Roland Koch...

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 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...

The referendum of the SPD on the coalition agreement between CDU/CSU and SPD for the Federal Government in the autumn 2012 raises several questions. Should it also be used on other matters and in other political parties? After the Federal...

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...

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...