Germany Politics Notes

Germany
• Apart from Austria, Germany is the only federalist state in the European Union
• Germany’s federal constitution provides for vertical dispersal of power between the federation (Bund) and the sixteen states (Lander).
• Each of these sixteen states have the full outfit of government, such as minister presidents and constitutional courts.
• Individual powers mainly police, education, cultural affairs,
• Germany is a ‘republic of states’ princes (Steffani, 1983), with the minister-presidents as the republican version of the earlier princes of the states.
• Although Berlin holds the headquarters of most political groups and institutions there is still a significant amount of power in Bonn. Also, the Federal Constitutional Court resides in Karlsruhe and the German central bank is located in Frankfurt.
• Germany’s federalism is largely ‘intergovernmental in character’ (Smith, 1986)
• ‘Germany’s federalism leaves little autonomy to its member states’ Schmidt, 2003, p64)
• More to do with rights and vetoes on a national level
• Unlike American model which consist of elected representatives of the states, the Bundesrat is composed of members of the state governments which appoint and recall the deputies.
• Richer states have two thirds control of the Bundesrat, allowing them to block any constitutional change.
• “A wide variety of co-governing forces and veto players can result in time consuming processes of consensus formation and conflict resolution.” (Schmidt, 2003, p4)
• Schmidt argues that despite the great problems involved that it is also part of good governance, through guaranteed stability and predictability as a result of fragmenting power.

These notes were created by Jonathan McHugh in March 2004


Source: Political Institutions In The Federal Republic Of Germany: Manfred Schmidt 2003