ZParl Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen

For elections to the European Parliament in Germany, an electoral system is used that entails four major disadvantages: (1) there is no mechanism to ensure a regionally balanced distribution of representatives; (2) closed party lists prevent a close...

Parliamentary democracy is in crisis, and society’s trust in democratic institutions and their representatives is dwindling. While plebiscites are considered a risky option for alleviating these problems in times of right-wing populism, interest...

How the Bundestag works depends largely on the skills and abilities of its members. The expertise of MPs is determined in particular by their previous professional experience. Building on earlier studies, changes in the parliamentary composition can...

At the center of this mixed methods study is the research question, how the parliamentary communication on gender equality issues has deteriorated since the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has entered the German Bundestag. The analysis is based on a...

In German politics for a long time, issues of lobbying regulation were put on the political agenda only in some periods and with varying subjects. Only at the beginning of the 2000s the isolated rules were recognized by political actors as a...

This article extends previous data collections on interest articulation in the committees of the German Bundestag. The analysis shows a further increase in the relevance of expert participation, without a corresponding expansion in the number of...