E-Democracy in Practice

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

E-Democracy in Practice Roskilde University European E-Democracy in Practice Hennen, Leonhard; Van Keulen, Ira; Korthagen, Iris; Aichholzer, Georg; Lindner, Ralf; Nielsen, Rasmus Øjvind DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-27184-8 Publication date: 2020 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Citation for published version (APA): Hennen, L. (Ed.), Van Keulen, I. (Ed.), Korthagen, I. (Ed.), Aichholzer, G. (Ed.), Lindner, R., & Nielsen, R. Ø. (Ed.) (2020). European E-Democracy in Practice. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27184-8 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain. • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 23. Sep. 2021 Studies in Digital Politics and Governance Leonhard Hennen · Ira van Keulen Iris Korthagen · Georg Aichholzer Ralf Lindner · Rasmus Øjvind Nielsen Editors European E-Democracy in Practice Studies in Digital Politics and Governance Editors-in-Chief Norbert Kersting, Institute of Political Science, University of Münster, Münster, Germany Karen Mossberger, School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA This book series examines how and why digital technologies matter for democracy – whether in terms of coordinating social movements, elections, e-government, or digital inclusion. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, digital democracy, electronic voting, online participation and civic engagement, and electronic campaigning. The series also covers studies on the impact of information technol- ogies on policy issues such as smart cities and the applications of information technologies in a diverse range of areas, such as public health, education, and cybersecurity. Studies in Digital Politics and Governance (DPG) welcomes monographs and edited volumes from a variety of disciplines and approaches, such as political science, public administration and computational sciences, which are accessible to academics, decision-makers and practitioners working at governmental and non-governmental institutions. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/16070 Leonhard Hennen • Ira van Keulen • Iris Korthagen • Georg Aichholzer • Ralf Lindner • Rasmus Øjvind Nielsen Editors European E-Democracy in Practice Editors Leonhard Hennen Ira van Keulen Institute of Technology Assessment Rathenau Instituut and Systems Analysis The Hague, The Netherlands Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Karlsruhe, Germany Iris Korthagen Georg Aichholzer Netherlands Court of Audit Institute of Technology Assessment The Hague, The Netherlands Austrian Academy of Sciences Vienna, Austria Ralf Lindner Rasmus Øjvind Nielsen Fraunhofer Institute for Systems The Danish Board of Technology Foundation and Innovation Research Hvidovre, Denmark Karlsruhe, Germany ISSN 2524-3926 ISSN 2524-3934 (electronic) Studies in Digital Politics and Governance ISBN 978-3-030-27183-1 ISBN 978-3-030-27184-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27184-8 This book is an open access publication. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgements This book had its origins in a research project commissioned and funded by the European Parliament’s Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA). We would like to thank the STOA Panel, the STOA Bureau and the STOA Secretariat for initiating and accompanying the underlying research project. Our thanks also go to Gianluca Quaglio from the STOA Secretariat and to Bruno Kaufmann and Robert Krimmer for their valuable comments and recommendations. Finally, we would like to thank Julie Cook for a thorough English language check of the manuscript. v Contents 1 Introduction .......................................... 1 Leonhard Hennen, Iris Korthagen, Ira van Keulen, Georg Aichholzer, Ralf Lindner, and Rasmus Ø. Nielsen Part I The State of Scholarly Discussions 2 E-Democracy: Conceptual Foundations and Recent Trends ...... 11 Ralf Lindner and Georg Aichholzer 3 E-Democracy and the European Public Sphere ................ 47 Leonhard Hennen 4 Experience with Digital Tools in Different Types of e-Participation ....................................... 93 Georg Aichholzer and Gloria Rose Part II Case Studies 5 Introduction to the Case Study Research .................... 143 Ira van Keulen and Iris Korthagen 6 Parliamentary Monitoring ................................ 151 Iris Korthagen and Hade Dorst 7 Informal Agenda Setting ................................. 163 Ira van Keulen and Iris Korthagen 8 Formal Agenda Setting (National and Local Level) ............. 177 Iris Korthagen, Gloria Rose, Georg Aichholzer, and Ira van Keulen 9 Formal Agenda-Setting (European Level) .................... 209 Gloria Rose, Ira van Keulen, and Georg Aichholzer vii viii Contents 10 Non-binding Decision-Making ............................. 237 Iris Korthagen, Casper Freundlich Larsen, and Rasmus Ø. Nielsen 11 Binding Decision-Making ................................ 273 Kerstin Goos and Iris Korthagen Part III Conclusions 12 Assessing Tools for E-Democracy: Comparative Analysis of the Case Studies ..................................... 295 Iris Korthagen and Ira van Keulen 13 Options for Improving e-Participation at the EU Level .......... 329 Rasmus Ø. Nielsen, Leonhard Hennen, Iris Korthagen, Georg Aichholzer, and Ralf Lindner About the Editors and Authors Georg Aichholzer is a senior researcher, sociologist and freelance collaborator of the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA), Austrian Academy of Sciences. He has ample research and teaching experience in social studies of technology and technology assessment, especially on electronic governance, electronic democracy, digital change and the future of work. Hade Dorst is a PhD candidate at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Devel- opment at Utrecht University and is involved in the Horizon2020 project ‘Naturvation’ on the governance and innovation of urban nature-based solutions. Previously, she worked as a researcher at the Rathenau Institute on themes such as urban innovation and smart cities, including digital democracy. Casper Freundlich Larsen studied political science and government at Aarhus University. He worked as project assistant at the Danish Board of Technology Foundation in 2016. He is currently employed as academic officer at the Danish Agency for Digitisation. Kerstin Goos studied communication science with a focus on sociology and social research at the University of Hohenheim (Stuttgart) and at the Aarhus University in Denmark. Kerstin Goos has participated in several European research projects, especially in the field of innovation, responsible research and innovation and public participation. After 6 years as a researcher at the Competence Center Emerging Technologies at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, she is currently responsible for the implementation of EU projects in the field of urban innovation and cross-sectoral collaboration and digitization at the non-profit high- tech business network CyberForum e.V. in Karlsruhe. Leonhard Hennen has a PhD in sociology. He was project manager at the Office of Technology Assessment at the
Recommended publications
  • March 28 – 30, 2013 Hollywood, California
    Western Political Science Association CONFERENCE THEME: THE EMPIRES STRIKE BACK! March 28 – 30, 2013 Hollywood, California TABLE OF CONTENTS Page WELCOME AND SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................ ii WESTERN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION OFFICERS .................. iv COMMITTEES OF THE WESTERN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION ...................................................................................... vi WPSA ANNUAL AWARDS GUIDELINES ................................................. viii WPSA AWARDS TO BE ANNOUNCED AT THE 2013 MEETING ............. x CALL FOR PAPERS 2014 MEETING ......................................................... xi MEETING SCHEDULE AND SPECIAL EVENTS ........................................ 1 AUTHOR MEETS CRITICS PANELS .......................................................... 5 SCHEDULE OF PANELS ............................................................................ 6 PANEL LISTINGS: THURSDAY, 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM .................................................. 40 THURSDAY, 10:00 AM – 11:45 AM .................................................. 53 THURSDAY, 1:15 PM – 3:00 PM .................................................. 68 THURSDAY, 3:15 PM – 5:00 PM .................................................. 84 FRIDAY, 8:00 AM – 9:45 AM ................................................. 98 FRIDAY, 10:00 AM – 11:45 AM ............................................... 113 FRIDAY, 1:15 PM – 3:00 PM ............................................... 127 FRIDAY, 3:15 PM – 5:00 PM ..............................................
    [Show full text]
  • And 'Window-Dressing'
    Between ‘deepening democracy’ and ‘window-dressing’ - Explaining policy-effects of dialog-oriented procedures1 Paper to be presented at ECPR General Conference 2016, 7-10 September 2016, Prague Panel: “Innovating Local Involvement of Citizens” Pamela Hess2 / Brigitte Geissel Abstract: The effects of dialog-oriented procedures on policies are discussed within both academic and practitioner communities. On one hand, dialog-oriented procedures are expected to deepen democracy in the sense of strengthening the links between public dialog and political decision making. On the other hand, opponents argue that in most cases these procedures are only symbolic window-dressing. We assume that dialog-oriented procedures can be both, and their policy effects depend on certain factors. So far, not much research has been done on explaining policy-effects of dialog-oriented procedures, and much of the past work focused on single case studies or on narrative synopses of very few cases. The paper is contributing to fill this gap through a quantitative meta-synthesis, which combines and aggregates data from primary studies on local procedures. It identifies the variables which make it more likely that dialog-oriented procedures have an impact on policy making (“effective dialog-oriented procedures”). We focus exemplarily on local procedures in Germany. Germany is an interesting case, because its local representative democracy is increasingly complemented with participatory approaches. The findings indicate that particularly comprehensive municipal commitments
    [Show full text]
  • 2018: Towards a Digital Democracy Opportunities and Challenges
    Towards a digital democracy Opportunities and challenges EPTA Report 2018 Towards a digital democracy Opportunities and challenges EPTA Report 2018 Compiled by Riccardo Molinari and Zsolt Pataki and edited by Theo Karapiperis, Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA). Brussels, European Parliament, 2018 © European Union, 2018 Table of contents 1. Topic of the EPTA Conference 2018 ....................................................................................... 2 2. Programme ................................................................................................................................. 7 3. National reports......................................................................................................................... 8 3.1 Austria .................................................................................................................................. 8 3.2 Catalonia - region of Spain .............................................................................................. 12 3.3 Denmark ............................................................................................................................. 15 3.4 Finland ................................................................................................................................ 18 3.5 France .................................................................................................................................. 24 3.6 Germany ............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Part I: Literature Review
    Prospects for e-democracy in Europe Part I: Literature review STUDY Science and Technology Options Assessment EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA) February 2018 - PE 603.213 Prospects for e-democracy in Europe Literature review Study IP/G/STOA/FWC/2013-001/LOT 8/C4 February 2018 Abstract A long-standing and continuing democratic deficit of the European Union is detected in public and scholarly debate. This democratic deficit is explained by the complex and mutually reinforcing mix of institutional design features of the EU and it is held to contribute to a lacking sense of European citizenship and the negative and nation-oriented public discourse around the EU. It is still believed by many that the perceived democratic deficit of the European Union indicates the need for fostering a European public sphere as a space of debate across national public spheres. Moreover, there is a consensus that the new modes of political communication and participation via the internet can play a role in that respect. Redressing the democratic deficit is obviously a daunting task which cannot be accomplished through the introduction of e-participation tools alone. Far-reaching expectations of a fundamental reform of modern democracy through the application of online participatory tools are vanishing after two decades of e-democracy. However, if properly designed and implemented, e- participation has the potential to contribute to accountability and transparency, trans-nationalisation and politicisation of public debates, and the improvement of exchanges and interactions between EU decision-making and European citizens. A common critique on e-participation practices at the EU-level is that they are a successful civic instrument but not a convincing policy instrument.
    [Show full text]
  • The Three Dimensions of Political Action in United States Democracy: Corporations As Political Actors and "Franchise Governments"
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 12-2017 The Three Dimensions of Political Action in United States Democracy: Corporations as Political Actors and "Franchise Governments" Steven Alfonso Panageotou University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Politics and Social Change Commons Recommended Citation Panageotou, Steven Alfonso, "The Three Dimensions of Political Action in United States Democracy: Corporations as Political Actors and "Franchise Governments". " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2017. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/4776 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Steven Alfonso Panageotou entitled "The Three Dimensions of Political Action in United States Democracy: Corporations as Political Actors and "Franchise Governments"." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Sociology. Harry F. Dahms,
    [Show full text]
  • Policy Representation by the 2017 Bundestag
    Policy representation by the 2017 Bundestag by Andranik S. Tangian No. 108 | SEPTEMBER 2017 WORKING PAPER SERIES IN ECONOMICS KIT – Die Forschungsuniversität in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft econpapers.wiwi.kit.edu Impressum Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre (ECON) Kaiserstraße 12 76131 Karlsruhe KIT – Die Forschungsuniversität in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Working Paper Series in Economics No. 108, September 2017 ISSN 2190-9806 econpapers.wiwi.kit.edu Institute of Economic Theory and Operations Research Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Policy representation by the 2017 Bundestag Andranik S. Tangian Working paper Nr. 108 September 2017 E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +49 721 6084 3077 Kollegium am Schloss 76128 Karlsruhe Deutschland ii Abstract The paper estimates the policy representation of 34 German parties that have participated in the 2017 Bundestag (federal) election. For this purpose, the party positions on 31 topical issues are compared with the results of recent public opinion polls. Then we construct the party indices of popularity (the average percentage of the population represented) and universality (frequency in representing a majority). Regarding policy representation, the election winner, the conservative union CDU/CSU is ranked only 27th. The most representative among six Bundestag parties is the GRUNE,¨ constituting the smallest faction. In turn, the Bundestag indices of representativeness are about 40%, meaning that it is non-representative rather than representative. However, if the Bundestag were elected using `the third vote', i.e. if the size of the Bundestag factions were made proportional to the indices of representativeness, it could significantly gain in policy representation. Keywords: Policy representation, representative democracy, direct democracy, elections, coali- tions.
    [Show full text]
  • Leonhard Hennen
    Studies in Digital Politics and Governance Leonhard Hennen · Ira van Keulen Iris Korthagen · Georg Aichholzer Ralf Lindner · Rasmus Øjvind Nielsen Editors European E-Democracy in Practice Studies in Digital Politics and Governance Editors-in-Chief Norbert Kersting, Institute of Political Science, University of Münster, Münster, Germany Karen Mossberger, School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA This book series examines how and why digital technologies matter for democracy – whether in terms of coordinating social movements, elections, e-government, or digital inclusion. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, digital democracy, electronic voting, online participation and civic engagement, and electronic campaigning. The series also covers studies on the impact of information technol- ogies on policy issues such as smart cities and the applications of information technologies in a diverse range of areas, such as public health, education, and cybersecurity. Studies in Digital Politics and Governance (DPG) welcomes monographs and edited volumes from a variety of disciplines and approaches, such as political science, public administration and computational sciences, which are accessible to academics, decision-makers and practitioners working at governmental and non-governmental institutions. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/16070 Leonhard Hennen • Ira van Keulen • Iris Korthagen • Georg Aichholzer • Ralf Lindner • Rasmus Øjvind Nielsen Editors European E-Democracy in
    [Show full text]
  • UNU-CRIS Working Papers
    UNU -CRIS Working Papers W-2013/6 Digital Publics in Transnational Spaces: EU Blogs and the European Public Sphere Author: Georgios Papanagnou 1 | P a g e The author Dr. Georgios Papanagnou is a Visiting Researcher at UNU-CRIS and can be reached at [email protected] United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies Potterierei 72, 8000 Brugge, BE-Belgium Tel.: +32 50 47 11 00 / Fax.: +32 50 47 13 09 www.cris.unu.edu 2 | P a g e Abstract The paper presents the results of the empirical research conducted on the emerging EU-blogosphere and relates them to the Habermasian notion of the public sphere. Conceptually, it traces the development of the public sphere as a normative category and borrowing from Fraser (2007) establishes a series of criteria that seem to guarantee its effective operation as a democratic bridge between publics and authorities in a transnational context. In the process, it refers to the various empirical works in this area which aim to trace the public sphere in Europe (off/online). The empirical part analyzes the findings of the qualitative research conducted with EU-bloggers (expert interviews and content analysis). The results show that the EU-blogosphere to some extent exhibits characteristics of an effective (if inconsistent) transnational public sphere (extension of democratic debate, promoting an EU-common identity, achieving at times influence). Nonetheless, its deliberative quality is low and overall it remains too small and expert driven. Finally, in order to interpret the findings the paper makes use of Mouffe’s (2005) critical examination of the concept of the public sphere.
    [Show full text]
  • Assembling the Plebeian Republic
    Assembling the Plebeian Republic Popular Institutions against Systemic Corruption & Oligarchic Domination Camila Vergara Gonzalez Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2019 © 2019 Camila Vergara Gonzalez All rights reserved ABSTRACT Assembling the Plebeian Republic Popular Institutions against Systemic Corruption & Oligarchic Domination Camila Vergara Gonzalez Democracy seems to be in crisis and scholars have started to consider the possibility that “the only game in town” might be rigged. This dissertation theorizes the crisis of democracy from a structural point of view, arguing that liberal representative governments suffer from systemic corruption, a form of political decay that should be understood as the oligarchization of society, and proposes an anti-oligarchic institutional solution based on a radical interpretation of republican constitutional thought. If one agrees that the minimal normative expectation of liberal democracies is that governments should advance the welfare of the majority within constitutional safeguards, increasing income inequality and the relative immiseration of the majority of citizens would be in itself a deviation from good rule, a sign of corruption. As a way to understand how we could revert the current patterns of political corruption, the book provides an in-depth analysis of the institutional, procedural, and normative innovations to protect political liberty proposed by Niccolò Machiavelli, Nicolas de Condorcet, Rosa Luxemburg, and Hannah Arendt. Because their ideas to institutionalize popular power have consistently been misunderstood, instrumentalized, demonized, or neglected, part of what this project wants to accomplish is to offer a serious engagement with their proposals through a plebeian interpretative lens that renders them as part of the same intellectual tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • "Reviewing the Socialist Tradition" Geoff Eley April
    "REVIEWING THE SOCIALIST TRADITION" GEOFF ELEY CSST Working CRSO Working Paper 143 Paper 11418 APRIL 1990 REVEIWING THE SOCIALIST TRADITION GEOFF ELEY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN REVIEWING THE SOCIALIST TRADITION We are in a remarkable moment of historical change--the most remarkable since the mid-1940s, in fact. Like that earlier moment--which I'll call the moment of anti-fascist unity--the present is marked by the radical openness of its politics--dramatic events have completely overturned existing structures, dislodging previously entrenched assumptions of the possible, and calling into question apparently reliable certainties. Moreover, as in the 1940s, change has come from the East. It is worth remembering (because the organized forgetting of the last forty years has so successfully removed it from mind) that the war against Nazism was fought and won on the Eastern Front, that the anti-fascist resistance in continental occupied Europe imparted a dynamic of reconstruction that briefly effaced many of the pre-war distinctions of left and right, and that this dynamic brought the unprecedented emergence of national Communist Parties as popular and legitimate participants--and sometimes the leaders--in broadly-based reform-oriented coalitions. By contrast with the mid-1940s, however, the main logic of international alignment is working powerfully in favor of such openness rather than against it. Whereas the Cold War brutally re-polarized the political imagination by 1947-48 and destroyed the autonomy of national roads, the end of the Cold War in the later-1980s has restored the claims of national history. Indeed, Gorbachev has continuously radicalized the openness of the East-Central European, and tendentially of the Western European, situation.
    [Show full text]
  • Theme, Division and Related Group Panels the Following Groups Organize and Sponsor Panels, Roundtables and Plenaries at the APSA Annual Meeting
    Theme, Division and Related Group Panels The following groups organize and sponsor panels, roundtables and plenaries at the APSA Annual Meeting. Theme panels: Organized by Annual Meeting program chairs, focusing on broad topics related to the meeting theme or issues of wide interest to the Association. A “T” precedes the title of theme panels in this program. Division panels: Organized and overseen by Annual Meeting division chairs who also serve as members of the program committee. APSA organizes the annual meeting into 49 divisions, 41 of which align with APSA Organized Sections. APSA allocates panels to each division according to a formula based on prior year attendance and proposal submission rates. The following pages list division panels ordered by division number. Related group panels: Organized by independent professional groups, called “Related Groups,” and invited by APSA to organize scholarly panels during the annual meeting. Several Some related groups only meet at the APSA Annual Meeting (e.g. conference groups) and some are independent associations. Related groups must demonstrate to APSA that they have a persistent organizational structure and membership threshold to be eligible to host panels at the meeting. The following pages list related group panels ordered by related group name. Committee panels: Organized by APSA committees to address professional issues in the discipline and related to the committee’s responsibilities. See the “Committee Sponsored Panels Events” entry in the Table of Contents for the location of the committee panel listings. 190 Theme, Division and Related Group Panels Related Groups Association of Chinese Political Studies Chair: Dali L. Yang, University of Chicago African Politics Conference Group Panel 1 CHINA, THE UNITED STATES, AND Sat 8:00 am Chair: Peter A.
    [Show full text]
  • Policy Representation by German Parties at the 2017 Federal Election
    Policy representation by German parties at the 2017 federal election by Andranik S. Tangian No. 107 | SEPTEMBER 2017 WORKING PAPER SERIES IN ECONOMICS KIT – Die Forschungsuniversität in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft econpapers.wiwi.kit.edu Impressum Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre (ECON) Kaiserstraße 12 76131 Karlsruhe KIT – Die Forschungsuniversität in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Working Paper Series in Economics No. 107, September 2017 ISSN 2190-9806 econpapers.wiwi.kit.edu Institute of Economic Theory and Operations Research Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Policy representation by German parties at the 2017 federal election Andranik S. Tangian Working paper Nr. 107 September 2017 E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +49 721 6084 3077 Kollegium am Schloss 76128 Karlsruhe Deutschland ii Abstract The paper estimates the policy representation of 34 German parties that participate in the 2017 Bundestag (federal) election. For this purpose, the party positions on 31 topical issues are compared with the results of recent public opinion polls. Then we construct the party indices of popularity (the average percentage of the population represented) and universality (frequency in representing a majority). We find that the currently governing conservative union CDU/CSU and the social-democratic SPD are ranked only 27th and 22nd, respectively, being least representative among the four parties in the 2013 Bundestag. The most representative Bundestag faction is the GRUNE¨ | the smallest one. The current Bundestag representativeness is about 50%, as if the correspondence with the electorate's preference on every policy issue is being decided by tossing a coin, meaning that the 2013 Bundestag is practically unrelated to public opinion.
    [Show full text]