ZParl Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen

The recruitment of politicians is a central task of political parties in democracies. In order to understand who enters politics and how the political mandate is obtained, we must first ask under which criteria the parties nominate their potential...

On July 4, 2024, the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament adopted a law amending the municipal election act. By this law, the apportionment method of Sainte-Laguë (Webster's method) applied so far in North Rhine-Westphalia is replaced by a...

The year 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of the historically momentous presidential election of 1925, in which Paul von Hindenburg was elected Reich President. With 48.3 percent, Hindenburg only narrowly beat the candidate of the Centre Party, SPD...

Despite legal equality, women remain a minority on all levels of political offices, mainly due to unequal access to political power. This article therefore examines structural disadvantages that women experience in the context of internal party...

Since joining the EU on January 1, 1995, Austria has been represented in the European Parliament by directly elected members . After 30 years of EU membership, this article analyses the social profiles of all Austrian MEPs to date . Age, education,...

The planned European Political Community (EPC) was intended to serve as a political backup for the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and for the European Defence Community (EDC) agreed between the six ECSC countries . The so-called Ad Hoc...

The 2024 European elections in Germany took place against the backdrop of a fundamentally pro-European mood . For most Germans, the EU guarantees protection and safe coexistence in Europe in times of crisis . Peacekeeping and social security were...

With a special focus on the Dutch Politieke Partij Radikalen (PPR) and its sister party Die Grünen in the period 1968 to 1984, this historical study of the early years of the alliance of green parties in Europe provides a new perspective on the...

‘At the end of this day, I cannot pretend that nothing has happened’, said French President Emmanuel Macron after the far-right Rassemblement National emerged as the clear winner of the European Parliament elections on June 9, 2024 . He...

This article examines the constitutionally grounded balance between the principle of transparency and the requirements of confidentiality in parliamentary committees of inquiry . These temporary suborganizations are central instruments of...

As a result of demographic change, young voters are increasingly losing influence in elections . Children and adolescents below voting age have no voting rights at all, yet are subject to policy and law . Previous proposals to combat these...

Roll-call votes play an important role in parliamentary research, but have so far focused almost exclusively on plenary votes due to a lack of data . In a transparency offensive, the European Parliament (EP) decided in 2014 to make roll-call votes...

In 2023, only 22 .4 percent of the members entitled to vote participated in the social insurance elections, i .e . the third biggest election in Germany . Against this backdrop, the paper describes the functions of the sectoral quasi-parliaments in...

This paper focuses on a subset of the interest group population in the German health policy sector . Analyzing the invitation lists to all public hearings the health committee of the German Bundestag carried out between the 15th and the 19th...

Since the European elections in 2014, the number of parties elected to the European Parliament (EP) in Germany has more than doubled . The removal of the 5-percent threshold in electoral law gave seven small(est) parties with an increasing number of...

The British party system has been historically defined by two major parties, the Conservatives and the Labour Party . Parliamentary and election rules have reinforced this dominance which, in the twenty first century, is facing major challenges ....

The parliamentary elections to South Korea’s 22nd National Assembly on April 10, 2024, were a classic mid-term election occurring during the five-year term of conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol, who had assumed office two years earlier . The...

Parliaments have long been concerned with taking data protection into account in their work . However, since the GDPR entered into force, there has been intense debate as to whether it also applies to core parliamentary activities – in particular...

This essay examines the acceleration of legislative procedures and fast-track legislation based on the legal framework of constitutional law, rules of procedure and parliamentary practice in the Federal Republic of Germany . In the multi-sectional...