The Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
is a federal representative democracy. Its political
system is laid out in the 1949 constitution, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), which remained in effect with minor
amendments after 1990's German Reunification. The constitution emphasizes the protection of individual liberty in
an extensive catalogue of human rights and also divides powers both between the federal and state levels and
between the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. In many ways, the 1949 Grundgesetz is a strong response
to the perceived flaws of the failed 1919 Weimar Republic, which collapsed in favor of the dictatorship of the
Third Reich.
Federalism
The Federal Republic (Bundesrepublik) consists of 16 federal states (Bundesländer). The Grundgesetz prescribes
that legislature is to be handled by the states except where explicitly stated in the Grundgesetz itself. This
principle has been more or less reversed in practice through many amendments of the constitution since 1949,
leaving basically only police, cultural and communal affairs to be handled by state legislature.
The political systems of the individual states are prescribed by state constitutions, but resemble that of
the federal level to a certain extent. The heads of the federal states' governments are called Ministerpräsidenten
(Minister-President) or --in case of the three city-states-- Regierender Bürgermeister (Governor-Mayor, in Berlin
and Bremen) or Erster Bürgermeister (First Mayor, in Hamburg). They each form a state cabinet as well, although
it is usually much smaller than the federal government. Elections for the parliaments of the Bundesländer occur
every four to five years, depending on the state.
Bunderkanzler
The Bundeskanzler (Federal Chancellor)
heads the Bundeskabinett (Federal Cabinet) and thus the executive branch
of the federal government. He is elected by and responsible to the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. Germany, like
the United Kingdom, can thus be classified as a parliamentary system.
The Chancellor cannot be removed from office during a 4-year term unless the Bundestag has agreed on a successor.
This Constructive Vote of No Confidence is intended to avoid the situation of the Weimar Republic in which the
executive did not have enough support in the legislature to govern effectively, but the legislature was too
divided to name a successor.
The Chancellor is usually the candidate of the party with the most seats in parliament, supported
by a coalition of two or more parties with a majority in the parliament. He appoints a Vice-Chancellor
(Vizekanzler), who is a member of his cabinet, usually the Foreign Minister. When there is a coalition
government (which has, so far, always been the case, except for the period of 1957 to 1961), the
Vice-Chancellor usually belongs to the smaller party of the coalition.
The heads of governments may change the structure of ministries whenever and however they see fit.
Subordinate to the cabinet is the Civil service of Germany.
Bunderpräsident
By contrast, the duties of the Bundespräsident (Federal President) are largely representative and
ceremonial. Power is solely exercised by the Chancellor. The President is elected every 5 years on 23. May 23
by the Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung), a special body convoked only for this purpose, comprising
the entire Bundestag and an equal number of state delegates selected especially for this purpose.
The reason that the President is not popularly elected is to prevent him from gaining enough popular
legitimacy to circumvent the constitution, as occurred with the Weimar Republic.
Bundestag
The Bundestag (Federal Diet) is Germany's parliament. It is elected for a 4-year term, consists of at
least twice the number of electoral districts -- 328 in 1998, being reduced to 299 -- in the country.
(More deputies may be admitted when parties' directly elected seats exceed their proportional representation.)
Elections for an all-German Bundestag were first held on 2. December 1990.
A party must have 5% of the vote or at least three direct elected deputies to be represented in the Bundestag.
This rule, often called the "five percent hurdle", is part of the constitution to prevent political
fragmentation and strong minor parties, as this was considered a major reason for the inefficacy of the
Weimar Republic's Reichstag.
Bunderrat
The Bundesrat (Federal Council) is the representation of the state governments at the federal level.
It consists of 69 members who are delegates of the 16 Bundesländer and usually, but not necessarily
include the 16 Minister Presidents themselves.
The legislature has powers of exclusive jurisdiction and concurrent jurisdiction with the Länder in
areas specifically enumerated by the Basic Law. The Bundestag bears the major responsibility. The necessity
for the Bundesrat to concur on legislation is limited to bills treating revenue shared by federal and
state governments and those imposing responsibilities on the states, although in practice, this is quite common.
Since the political color of the Bundesrat (which depends on the various state elections that occur
independently of the federal ones) is quite frequently inverse to that of the Bundestag, it has, in
recent years, become more and more an arena for the political parties as opposed to one for state
interests, as the constitution intended.
Justice System
Germany has an independent judiciary branch. Since the independence of the judiciary is historically
older than democracy in Germany, the organization of courts is traditionally strong, and almost all
state actions are subject to judicial review. Besides a so-called "ordinary" judicial branch that handles
civil and criminal cases, which is in turn comprised of four levels of courts up to the Bundesgerichtshof
in a fairly complex appeals system, there are separate branches for administrative, tax, labor, and social
security issues, each with their own hierarchies. Courts are generally in the hands of the states, except
for the highest courts of each branch, which are federal, respectively, to maintain a certain degree of
unity in jurisdiction.
In addition, Germany has a powerful Constitutional Court, the Bundesverfassungsgericht. This is somewhat
unique since the Grundgesetz stipulates in principle that every person may file a complaint to that court
when his constitutional rights, especially the human rights, have been violated by the state. Such actions
can include laws passed by the legislative branch, court decisions, or acts of the administration.
While
in practice, only a small percentage of these constitutional complaints (Verfassungsbeschwerden) are
successful, the Constitutional Court is known to frequently annoy both the executive and the legislative
branches with far-reaching decisions. The Constitutional Court also handles several other procedures such
as disputes between state institutions over their constitutional powers.
Political parties
The following parties currently have a major influence in German politics, by representation in the Buntestag, Bundesrat
or parliaments of the states:
- Social Democratic Party (SPD) – Social Democrat, centrist/left to the center
- Christian Democratic Union (CDU) / Christian Social Union (CSU) – Christian democrat conservative, centrist/right to the center
- Green Party - green
- Free Democratic Party (FDP) – liberal
- Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) – socialist
In addition to those parties 16 other parties were on the ballot in one or more states in recent elections.
They did not qualified for representation in the Bundestag because they failed the "five percent hurdle".
The right-wing parties remained fragmented and ineffectual at the national level.
Please have a look at some banknotes from West Germany.
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