Volume 48 (2017), Edition 4

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 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”...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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 ....

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...