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Background Note the British German Forum This Background Note Provides Some Basic Information on the British and German Political Systems

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Background Note the British German Forum This Background Note Provides Some Basic Information on the British and German Political Systems British German Forum A smarter Europe: cooperation, competition, and innovation in the 2020s Sunday 13 – Thursday 17 July 2014 | WP1320 In association with: Supported by: British Embassy, Berlin Foreign and Commonwealth Office Background note The British German Forum This background note provides some basic information on the British and German political systems. A table at the back of the document (section 3) summarises some relevant data. The overall note comprises:1 1. Germany Governing architecture Local government Legislature Federal electoral system Federal government Political parties at the federal level Bundestag parties Other significant parties 2. United Kingdom Governing architecture Devolution Local government – county and city councils Legislature National electoral system UK government Political parties in the UK parliament The government and the opposition Significant parties without seats in the House of Commons 3. Germany and the UK compared: key figures & education systems 4. ‘Smartness’ in the EU Acknowledgements and caveats Any opinions expressed in this document are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wilton Park, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the UK Government. Comments and suggestions can be sent to [email protected]. Alexandra Craven, Wilton Park June 2014. 1 If reading this electronically: each heading in the contents page is hyperlinked to the appropriate part of the document. 2 Germany Governing architecture Germany’s democratic system is based on the 1949 constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), otherwise known as the Grundgesetz or Basic Law. Upon reunification of the two Germanys in 1990, the former East German states acceded to West Germany and adopted the Basic Law. Local government – Germany’s federal structure Germany has a federal structure. Most decisions affecting the day to day lives of German citizens are taken at the local level. There are sixteen Länder (singular: ‘Land’) or federal states in Germany. Each functions as a partly sovereign state in its own right. Citizens living in each Land elect representatives to their Land’s government every four or five years. In most states, representatives are elected to a unicameral chamber, usually called a Landtag. The Landtag then elects the Land’s Head of Government, usually called a Minister-President who in term appoints a Cabinet. The Federal Government exercises exclusive responsibility in some areas of policy including: national defence, foreign affairs, immigration and transportation. In most other policy areas, Länder can legislate with relative freedom. The Länder are represented at the Federal level by the Bundesrat. Legislature – the Bundestag Germany has a bicameral legislature consisting in an upper house (the Bundesrat) and a lower house (the Bundestag). This note will focus on the Bundestag. Bundestag 2 The Bundestag is composed of over 600 representatives. Half of these representatives are directly elected and serve geographically-defined constituencies of which there are 299. The remaining half are elected through a system of proportional representation (PR) via a party lists system. The federal election system will be examined in greater detail below. Members of the chamber are called MdBs (Mitglied des Bundestag). The Bundestag has a number of functions. It is the seat of parliament in Germany and a main player, alongside the Federal Government and the Bundesrat, in the process of legislation. It formally elects the German Chancellor. MdBs exercise oversight on the activity of the Federal Government through standing committees. Federal electoral system Germany’s federal electoral system is described as ‘personalised proportional representation’ as it balances the direct election of representatives within an overarching system of proportional representation (PR). The system makes coalition government the norm and ensures that such alliances are stable. Federal elections occur every four years in Germany. German voters get two votes. The first vote elects a candidate standing in the constituency the elector resides in. Candidates running in such elections win if they gain a plurality of the vote. The second vote has, in effect, two functions: The remaining seats in the Bundestag are reserved for candidates standing on the basis of a party list in individual Länder. From the voter’s point of view, the second vote allows them to contribute to the election of their favoured party’s candidates. The second vote also structures the maximal representation any one party can realise across the Bundestag. So, for example, a political party winning 25% of the second votes nationally has their overall seat share in the Bundestag capped at 25%. No party can win representation in the Bundestag unless it either wins over 5% of the national vote or gets three representatives elected through the first vote. This means that it is relatively hard for new parties to enter the Bundestag. 2 The precise number of seats in the Bundestag will be discussed below in the context of the German electoral system. 3 The Federal Bundestag does not have a fixed size, as strong returns in the first vote in a given Land do not necessarily map on to strong second (list) returns nationally. Parties can, therefore, end up with more directly elected MdBs than would strictly be allowed due to their share of the second vote. In such cases, ‘Overhang Seats’ are created to ensure that directly elected representatives get a seat in the Bundestag. The next Federal election will take place between August and October 2017. Federal Government: the Chancellor and the Cabinet The Federal Government is headed by the Chancellor. The Bundestag elects the Chancellor on the advice of the Federal President. Success in this election requires a majority of all members of the Bundestag. The Chancellor is usually the head of the political party with the largest block of votes in the Bundestag. The Federal Cabinet, together with the Chancellor, forms the Federal Government. Political parties at the federal level There are five parties represented in the 18th (current) Bundestag, although two (the CDU and the CSU) cooperate as one party at the national level. The makeup of the current Bundestag represents a significant political shift for Germany. Three further parties merit discussion here despite lacking representation at the federal level. Parties with representation in the 18th Bundestag CDU/CSU The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) function as an electoral pact at the Federal level. The CDU is a conservative political party whose main foundational principle is the maintenance of Germany’s social market economy. The CSU is the only political party that operates at the Federal level that is primarily a Land party. The CSU is based in the Land of Bavaria The CSU is more socially and fiscally conservative than their partners in the CDU. The CDU/CSU control roughly 49% of the seats in the 18th Bundestag, the single largest block and over 100 more than their nearest rivals (the SPD) (Deutscher Bundestag, 2013). SPD The Social Democratic Party (SPD) is a centre-left political party committed to social justice in the economic and political life of Germany. The SPD is Germany’s oldest political party (founded in 1875). Traditionally it has supported the interests of the German working class. The SPD has led governing coalitions for twenty of the sixty five years of the Federal Republic’s history. The SPD is presently the second largest party in the 18th Bundestag, with 193 of the 631 seats. (Deutscher Bundestag, 2013) Reached 27.3% in the May 2014 European Elections a gain on their 20.8% in 2009. The Left Party The Left Party is the most left-wing party represented in the Bundestag. The Left Party seeks to replace Germany’s social market economy with a socially managed economy. It supports a redistributive fiscal policy funded, in part, by higher taxation of corporations. It advocates an isolationist foreign policy. The Left Party controls the third largest number of seats in the 18th Bundestag, holding 64 of the 631 seats (Deutscher Bundestag, 2013). 4 Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (more usually known as ‘The Greens’) is a centre-left political party that started life as the political organisation of the environmental movement in Germany. It has since broadened its platform to various aspects of social policy (e.g. support for same sex marriage). Founded in the 1970s, the Greens entered the Bundestag in 1983. It first entered government in 1998 in coalition with the SPD. The Greens currently hold 63 of the 631 seats in the 18th Bundestag (Deutscher Bundestag, 2013). Other significant parties FDP The Free Democratic Party (FDP) is driven by a classically liberal ideology emphasising the primacy of free market economics and individual liberty. The FDP has historically been a smaller party than the CDU/CSU and the SPD and has usually acted as a junior partner in a coalition led by one of those larger parties. The Party has been in governing coalitions for a total of 45 years, more than any other German political party. Making their lack of representation in the 18th Bundestag exceptional. In the previous (17th) Bundestag, the FDP controlled 93 of the 620 seats and were the junior partner in Angela Merkel’s government. The European Elections of May 2014 also saw a further decline in voter support for the FDP, their share of the vote decreasing from 11% to 3.4% AfD Alternative for Germany (AfD) formed in early 2013 to contest the September 2013 Federal elections. AfD has a conservative platform focused on advocating an end to the single European currency. AfD is not a Euro-sceptic party – it is broadly in favour of further European integration. The party won 4.7% of the vote in the 2013 federal elections, coming 0.3% short of winning seats in the Bundestag.
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