German parliament - Bundestag |
The Bundestag ("Federal Diet") is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949
(the Grundgesetz), and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag.
History of the Bundestag
The Bundestag was also the name of the governing body of the German Confederation from 1815-1866. This body met in
Frankfurt and was presided over by the Austrian delegate. As one of
the chief instruments of the reactionary forces opposed to democracy and nationalism, it was dissolved during the
liberal revolution of 1848 but reconvened in 1850. It is a predecessor to the modern Bundestag in name only. While
the modern parliament is elected by the people, the Bundestag of the German Confederation was appointed by the
various regional kings, archdukes, and princes.
With the dissolution of the German Confederation in 1866 and the founding of the
German Empire in 1871, the Reichstag
was established as the German parliament in Berlin. The Reichstag delegates were elected by the (male) people, and
the three-class electoral system prevailing in Prussia did not apply to the Reichstag elections. However, the parliament
still lacked the right to appoint and dismiss the Chancellor.
After the Revolution of 1918 and the establishment of the Weimar Constitution, women were given the right to vote
for (and serve in) the Reichstag, and the parliament appointed and dismissed the government. In 1933, the Reichstag
voluntarily ceded its powers to Chancellor Adolf Hitler, who banned all
opposition parties during the Gleichschaltung. Afterward it met
only rarely to unanimously rubber-stamp the decisions of the government. It was last convened on 26. April 1942.
In 1949, with the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany
(West Germany), the Bundestag was established as the new (West) German parliament. Because Berlin was not officially
part of the Federal Republic, the Bundestag met in Bonn in several different buildings, including (provisionally) a
former water works facility. The former Reichstag building housed a history exhibition ("Fragen an die deutsche Geschichte")
and served occasionally as a conference center.
Since 1999, the German parliament has again assembled in Berlin in the Reichstag building, which is still known as the
Reichstag. This building dates from the 1870's and underwent a significant renovation under the lead of architect Sir Norman Foster.
Tasks
Together with the Bundesrat, the Bundestag forms the legislative branch of the German political system. Germany does not
have a bicameral parliament in the strict sense, though.
Although most legislation is initiated by the executive branch, the Bundestag considers the legislative function its
most important responsibility, concentrating much of its energy on assessing and amending the government's legislative
program. The committees (see below) play a prominent role in this process. Plenary sessions provide a forum for members
to engage in public debate on legislative issues before them, but they tend to be well attended only when significant
legislation is being considered.
The Bundestag members are the only federal officials directly elected by the public. The Bundestag in turn elects the
Bundeskanzler and, in addition, exercises oversight of the executive branch on issues of both substantive policy and
routine administration. This check on executive power can be employed through binding legislation, public debates on
government policy, investigations, and direct questioning of the chancellor or cabinet officials.
For example, the
Bundestag can conduct a question hour (Fragestunde), in which a government representative responds to a previously
submitted written question from a member. Members can ask related questions during the question hour. The questions
can concern anything from a major policy issue to a specific constituent's problem. Use of the question hour has
increased markedly over the past forty years, with more than 20,000 questions being posed during the 1987-90 term.
Understandably, the opposition parties are active in exercising the parliamentary right to scrutinize government
actions.
Only 50 percent of Bundestag deputies are directly elected to represent a specific geographic district. The other
half are elected as party representatives.
The political parties are thus of great importance in Germany's electoral system, and many voters tend not to see the
candidates as autonomous political personalities but rather as creatures of the party. Interestingly, constituent service
seems not to be perceived, either by the electorate or by the representatives, as a critical function of the legislator.
A practical constraint on the expansion of constituent service is the limited personal staff of Bundestag deputies.
Election
Members serve four-year terms. Elections are held every four years (or earlier if a government falls from power). All
candidates must be at least eighteen years old. There are no term limits. The election uses the additional member system,
a hybrid of the first-past-the-post election system and party-list proportional representation. In addition, the Bundestag
has a minimum threshold of either 5% of the national party vote or three (directly elected) constituency representatives
for a party to gain additional representation through the system of proportional representation. The additional member
system results in a varying number of seats.
The distribution of the seats is calculated by the Largest remainder method. The overhang seats are distributed according
to the vote count separately for each state.
Organization
The most important organizational structures within the Bundestag are parliamentary groups (Fraktionen; sing. Fraktion),
which are formed by political parties represented in the chamber which have gained more than 5% of the total votes.
The size of a party's Fraktion determines the extent of its representation on legislative committees, the time slots
alloted for speaking, the number of committee chairs it can hold, and its representation in executive bodies of the
Bundestag. The Fraktionen, not the members, receive the bulk of government funding for legislative and administrative
activities.
The leadership of each Fraktion consists of a parliamentary party leader, several deputy leaders, and an executive
committee. The leadership's major responsibilities are to represent the Fraktion, enforce party discipline, and
orchestrate the party's parliamentary activities. The members of each Fraktion are distributed among working groups
focused on specific policy-related topics such as social policy, economics, and foreign policy. The Fraktion meets
once a week to consider legislation before the Bundestag and formulate the party's position on it.
Parties which do not fulfill the criterion for being a Fraktion but which have got at least three seats by direct
elections (i.e. which have got at least three MPs which represent a certain electoral district) in the Bundestag
can be granted the status of a group of the Bundestag. This applied to the Party of Democratic Socialism(PDS) from
1998-2002. This status entails some privileges which are in general less than those of a Fraktion.
The Bundestag's executive bodies include the Council of Elders and the Presidium. The council consists of the
Bundestag leadership, together with the most senior representatives of each Fraktion, with the number of these
representatives tied to the strength of the party in the chamber. The council is the coordination hub, determining
the daily legislative agenda and assigning committee chairpersons based on party representation. The council also
serves as an important forum for interparty negotiations on specific legislation and procedural issues. The
Presidium is responsible for the routine administration of the Bundestag, including its clerical and research activities.
It consists of the chamber's president (usually elected from the largest Fraktion) and vice presidents (one from each Fraktion).
Most of the legislative work in the Bundestag is the product of standing committees. Although this is common
practice in the U.S. Congress, it is uncommon in other parliamentary systems, such as the British House of Commons
and the French National Assembly. The number of committees approximates the number of federal ministries, and the
titles of each are roughly similar (e.g., defense, agriculture, and labor). The distribution of committee chairs
and the membership of each committee reflect the relative strength of the various parties in the chamber.
Please have a look at some banknotes from West Germany.
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