Volume 51 (2020), Edition 4

For the first time, in 2013 the electoral law introduced adjustment seats to compensate for surplus seats at the federal level . For the last two elections, this led to a considerable increase of the Bundestag’s size . The reform debate to shrink...

The Grand Coalition in Germany struggled with achieving a substantial reform of the electoral law . The measures it has introduced will presumably fail to prevent an additional increase in the number of Bundestag members after the next election . It...

The reform of the electoral law in 2013 introduced adjustment seats that compensate for surplus mandates, resulting in the Bundestag increasing in size . The new electoral law passed by the Grand Coalition in October 2020 will not provide an...

The Federal German Electoral Law allots 299 constituency and 299 party list parliamentary seats or more . The personalized proportional representation (PR) system prescribes party list votes as the dominant principle of seat distribution . In this...

The German electoral law to the federal parliament was reformed in 2011 and in 2013 . While political scientists have extensively evaluated consequences of these reforms, the role of the public discourse has been largely neglected . We analyze...

According to the Rules of Procedure of the German Bundestag (”GOBT”), every Member of Parliament is granted a five minutes’ verbal explanation of vote . It is granted for nearly every kind of vote in the House . The verbal explanation is often...

The legal framework of the parliamentary right of interpellation and the executive’s obligation to respond to these questions has traditionally been a field of contention between the government and the opposition . The Federal Constitutional Court...

The two general elections held in Italy in 2013 and 2018 were particularly significant: While the anti‑systemic Five Star Movement and the Lega were hugely successful, established parties such as Forza Italia and Partito Democratico fell behind ....