ZParl Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen

The relevance of ideology for local political behaviour is a core interest of research on municipal governments. An extensive literature has considered the level of party orientation within municipal councils and for local voting behaviour. In...

This paper summarises the development of arguments, from 1996 to 2015, around the establishment of a means of retaining communication data (Vorratsdatenspeicherung). It focuses on the key parliamentary proceedings in both the German Bundestag and...

Research on vice presidents of German state parliaments is almost non-existent. yet, there seem to be tensions between the principles guiding the election of vice presidents and the tasks they are assigned. On the one hand vice presidents are...

The article analyzes the electoral law to become Prime Minister in the new Länder with regard to similarities and differences and it compares the regulations with the old German federal states. Therefore the approach can be seen as an inner-German...

Nudging refers to a much-debated political steering approach that relies on gentle interventions in decision architectures of individuals with the aim to shape their behaviour in a direction that is beneficial for them and/or for the society as a...

Direct democracy in German local politics is a topic, which is widely discussed in science and politics today facing questions of increasing input and output legitimacy of representative democracy. At the same time empirical knowledge about the...

Due to the great successes of the AfD in the three state elections of March 2016 there is an intensified discussion about the characteristics of the AfD’s electorate at the national level. Who votes for the AfD? Are there any social groups with an...

Due to the striking distance between citizens and politicians within their communities, the local level offers the best possibilities for political participation. However, protests such as “Stuttgart 21” suggest that the crisis of representative...

More and more often since the early 1990s there are complaints about democratic and legitimacy deficits of the European Union . In the EU member states new parties took up this issue. In the literature this new political line is termed...

The electoral system to the German Bundestag may not only lead to unnecessary enlargements of parliament but it is also not focused systematically on reducing the intraparty distortions. Those distortions played a substantial role in the political...

Although electoral participation has decreased especially in the group of young adults in recent years, online participation may lead to more political engagement of young people. By asking for their activities in conventional and unconventional...

If the German electoral system would have been designed in a planning-related manner, it could have taken on several forms - but it most certainly would not look the way it currently looks. Despite the seeming lack of creativity and drive concerning...

Mosler, Hannes B.: Banning the United Progressive Party in the Republic of Korea. The South Korean constitutional court decided in 2014 to ban the minor leftist United Progressive Party (UPP) and to deprive its five lawmakers of their seats in the...

Modern societies are characterized by an increasing acceleration in all areas of life . The political system is under pressure to adapt to this, especially since decision-making in demo- cratic systems is perceived as taking too long . The question...

Once established, in most democracies electoral systems remain fundamentally unaltered . Therefore, countries that executed such change are of particular interest . Italy, Japan and New Zealand rejected their existing electoral laws and established...

Committees of Inquiry are powerful instruments of legislative oversight and hold the potential to generate extensive public attention . One can argue that an issue needs to be sali- ent before legislators consider establishing a Committee of Inquiry...

The Finnish election from 19th April 2015 caused a change in government and a distinct centre-right coalition in the Nordic country of great coalitions . For the first time, the right wing populist Finns-Party is a part of government . In reaction...

Five years have passed since the introduction of the subsidiarity test in the Lisbon Treaty . Hence, an evaluation of this instrument to enhance the position of national parliaments in European political decision-making is due . Looking back,...