Germany Flashcards
Weimar republic 1919-1933
Weimar Republic (1919-1933);
|
|—> First experience with democracy;
|—> Polarised parliamentarism;
|—> Economic depression (extreme depreciation of the currency);
|
National-socialists convinced democrats that they would save the economy;
|
|—> Increased its electoral success and Hitler’s popular support;
Nazi regime 1933-1945
Fascism, nationalism, reign of terror, mass meeting and nationalsocialism
—> Extremely destructive to Germany;
|—> Massive casualties (not only in war zones but also in
concentration camps);
DDR
Soviet zone
Founded in 1949
One party communist state led by SED, strongly controlled by Moscow
Reunification
Fall of Berlin wall 1989, German unity act 1990 3 oct
DDR merged into BRD political system
Militant democracy
- 1949 Basic Law (constitution) - measures to “defend the liberal democratic order”;
- Parts of Basic Law cannot be changed (“Ewigkeitsklausel”/eternity clause - fundamental right,
federalism and democracy); - Parties enshrined in Basic Law;
- Powerful Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht);
|—> Can ban/outlaw political parties;
|—> Socialist Imperial Party (1952) denied Holocaust and was prohibited to run by the
| court;
|—> Communist party of Germany (1956) programme calls for aggressive methods and
| was stopped by this court;
|—> National (democratic) party of Germany (2017) was established as unconstitutional
but not relevant enough to ban;
Parliamentary system
- Proportional electoral system;
|
|—> Multi-party system;
|—> Coalition government (all governments have emerged trough coalitions); - Ceremonial president (Bundesprasident);
- Chancellor and government depend on parliamentary majority;
- Only “constructive” motion of no-confidence;
- Strong bicameral parliament (Federal Diet and Federal Council);
Elections in Germany
Mixed-member proportional electoral system
|
Combines…
|
|—> Single-member districts: (ertstimme) first vote - majoritarian (299 mandates in 299 districts);
|—> Multi-member districts: (zweitstimme) second vote - proportional (min. 299 mandates in distributed across
the 16 states);
|
Electoral threshold for second votes (minimum 5% of 2nd votes or minimum 3 direct
mandates from 1st vote);
Überhangmandate
Party obtains more direct mandates than proportional result indicates, they get some more seats
Ausgleichmandate
To correct for disproportionalities created by überhangmandate. Adds extra seats to parties without überhangmandate for a more proportional result
CDU/CSU Interconfessional
- Christian democrat
- Conservative values
- Pro-market but also pro welfare
- Pro EU
- Catch all party
SPD
- Social democrat
- Pro welfare
- Pro EU
FDP Kingmaker party
- Pro market, pro business
- Socially progressive
- Austerity and smaller bureaucracy
- Recent decades -> more right wing – liberalism
Greens
- Post material values
- Environment
- Pacifism
- Social equality
1998-2005: coalition with SPD (rot-grün) since 2021 again in government
Die linke
- Democratic socialism
- Economic equality
- Working class rights
- EU skepticism
- Pacifism
Not seen as acceptable coalition partner
AFD
- Nativist
- Nationalist
- Anti immigrant / xenophobic
- Anti EU
- Socially conservative
Federalism
Part of militant democracy
16 federal states
Jurisdiction
* Education
* Law enforcement
* Regional planning
More unified than constitution suggests
Cooperative federalism
Symmetric federalism
Rise of AFD
o Since 2013 = shift to radical right accompanied by growth
o Spiegel 2019 = how should the country deal with a party that is becoming ever bigger and more extreme, but also has roots in the middle of the country’s parliamentary democracy?
o Response of mainstream parties = cordon sanitaire (boycott)
But debate in CDU about potential collaboration with AFD
The globalization cleavage has separated parties in
polarised issues such as migration.
|
|—> This leads parties to adopt different types off
positions to address this issues (polarisation) -
which is the case of the radical stances of AfD;
Voorkennis
In the 1800s, Germany was heavily divided. The unified state of Germany
is quite recent.
Even though being a federation with some legislative autonomy in substates, there is some cooperation between the different German “Lander”.
Pre ww1
I. Loose confederation of German principalities in the Holy Roman Empire (800-900);
II. “Zollverein” - customs union (1834);
III. German unification under Bismarck, “The Iron Chancellor” - foundation of Second Reich
(1871);
IV. Authoritarian and militarist state - led into WW1 by Wilhelm II (1871-1918);
V. WW1 (1914-1918);
Foundation DDR and BRD
X. Foundation of FRG and GDR (1949);
* West - Federal Republic of Germany
|
|—> American, British and French zones;
|—> Basic law (Grundgesetz) approved in 1949;
|—> Establishes a parliamentary democracy;
* East - German Democratic Republic (GDR)
|
|—> Soviet zone;
|—> Founded in 1949;
|—> One-party communist state led by SED;
|—> A lot of the people from the East tried to go to the West —> Berlin Wall (1961-1989);
XI. FRG is founding member of ECSC (EU predecessor);
XII. FRG joins NATO and GDR joins Warsaw Pact (1955);
XIII.Berlin Wall (1961-1989);
XIV.German reunification (1990);
|
|—> Fall of Berlin Wall (9th November 1989);
|—> German Unity day (3rd October 1990);
|—> DDR merged into BRD political system;
Religious cleavage
- Historically - Catholic Vs. Protestant;
- Also slowed-down German unification;
- Lost saliency after WW2;
- East has much lower religious affiliation;
Class cleavage
- Industrialisation produces class cleavage
(mid-1800s); - Strong Labour unions;
- Partial crossing with religion;
- Unification changed both religious and class
composition;
Centre-periphery cleavage
- Progressively weakened after unification;
- Bavaria and South-Schleswig are the exceptions;
- East perceives itself as the periphery;
Head of state - president
- Mainly representative function;
- Proposes Chancellor (but has limited room of manoeuvre - usually appoints the candidate of
the largest coalition partner); - Must sign laws, treaties and pardons to convicted criminals;
- Can refuse laws if deemed unconstitutional;
- Elected for 5 years by Federal Convention (federal diet and delegates of state legislatures);
- Maximum of 2 terms;
Parliament - Federal Diet/Bundestag (lower house)
- 598 MPs minimum (currently has 736);
- Members are elected via two-vote system (SMD+PR) for 4 years;
- Stronger of two houses (working parliament);
- Proposes and votes legislation;
- Elects the chancellor and can remove him trough a constructive vote of no confidence,
having to present a replacement (chancellors can also call for a motion of confidence, and if
that motion fails to win a majority, the legislature can be dissolved, and new elections can be
convened);
Parliament - Federal Council/Bundesrat (upper house)
- 69 members;
- Members are appointed by the state governments and the
minister president of a state is usually the head of the state
delegation (changes composition after each state election); - Second “federal” chamber;
- Has significant power;
- Must approve all laws and constitutional amendments (can be
overridden by diet for matters not immediately concerning the
states);
Head of government - chancellor
- Elected by federal diet on proposition of president;
- Appoints cabinet members/ministers (they don’t need to be MPs and they should cease to
be if they were elected as one); - Tradition of coalition governments (due to largely proportional electoral system);
- Collective responsibility (maintain the coalition);
- Cabinet proposes and executes laws;
Judiciary
- Branched judiciary (criminal, civil and administrative);
- Judging based on codification, rather than common law;
- Federal Constitutional Court (16 judges elected, half by each house with a 2/3 majority, for
12 years or until 68 years old);
Local government
- Federal state;
- 16 federal entities - states/bundeslander/lander (that have a direct check on the federal
government via their representation in the upper house); - Symmetric federalism (same competences for all);
- Reserved federal competences: Foreign affairs, monetary policy and tolls, etc.
- Federated competences: education and culture, state judiciary and law enforcement,
residual competences, etc. - More unified than constitution suggests cooperative federalism;
