Volume 45 (2014), Edition 3

The concept of European elections as second-order national elections serves as the basis fordeveloping seven hypotheses about the orientations as well as the turnout and the electoralbehaviour at European elections in comparison to national...

Home Affairs is one of the most controversial policy fields both within nation states andthe European Union. Moreover, the NSA affair has led to an increasing awareness of internalsecurity based on information and communication technology (ICT)....

The election to the European Parliament (EP) in Germany was not only influenced by thesuccessful appearance of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a right-wing populist andeuro-sceptical party. It was also influenced by the modification of the...

The failure of the FDP to re-enter parliament after the 2013 Bundestag elections as well asthe influx of over more than 200 new parliamentarians led to a shift in the occupationalstructure of the German Bundestag. Using Adalbert Hess’...

The German Bundestag is considered as being among the national parliaments with themost extensive “war powers” worldwide. However, its influence on decisions about the foreigndeployment of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, is not only...

Turkey’s accession to the European Union is a contentious issue and led to explicitly controversialdebates in the German Bundestag during the period of the red-green coalitionbetween 1998 und 2005. The historical and moral responsibility as well...

Iceland experienced a hard financial crisis, but could employ a rather successful crisis management.The country, however, generated international admiration because of the deliberativeconstitutional reform attempt, which finally shipwrecked...

In the fall of 2009 a hardly known form of policy advice received public attention: Foryears, a number of federal ministries contracted law firms with the drafting of bills. Althoughconcerns have been raised about democratic legitimacy and the...

Two central questions arise with the first being how national parties and interest groups,which have in common the ambition to influence their national state on behalf of theircitizens, operate and change at the EU level. The second question is...

The dispute about the use of referenda has intensified and meanwhile takes centre stagewith the increasing problems of policy intermediation and implementation. It is about thealleged democratic deficit of the German representative political...