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Bundestag
The Bundestag is the principal legislative chamber, roughly analogous
to the United States House of Representatives. The Bundestag has grown
gradually since its creation, most dramatically with unification and the
addition of 144 new representatives from eastern Germany, for a total
of 656 deputies in 1990. A further expansion in 1994 increased the number
to 672. Elections are held every four years (or earlier if a government
falls from power). Bundestag members are the only federal officials directly
elected by the public. All candidates must be at least twenty-one years
old; there are no term limits.
The most important organizational structures within the Bundestag are
parliamentary groups (Fraktionen ; sing., Fraktion),
which are formed by each political party represented in the chamber. The
size of a party's Fraktion determines the extent of its representation
on legislative committees, the number of committee chairs it can hold,
and its representation in executive bodies of the Bundestag. The head
of the largest Fraktion is named president 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.
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 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 United States 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). Between 1987
and 1990, the term of the eleventh Bundestag, there were twenty-one standing
committees. The distribution of committee chairs and the membership of
each committee reflect the relative strength of the various parties in
the chamber. In the eleventh Bundestag, the CDU/CSU chaired eleven committees,
the SPD eight, the FDP one, and the environmentalist party, the Greens
(Die Gruenen), one. Unlike in the United States Congress, where all committees
are chaired by members of the majority party, the German system allows
members of the opposition party to chair a significant number of standing
committees. These committees have either a small staff or no staff at
all.
Although most legislation is initiated by the executive branch, the Bundestag
considers the legislative function its most important responsibility.
The Bundestag concentrates much of its energy on assessing and amending
the government's legislative program. The committees 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 allots each Fraktion a certain amount of time,
based on its size, to express its views.
Other responsibilities of the Bundestag include selecting the federal
chancellor and exercising 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 Bundestag term. Understandably, the opposition
parties are active in exercising the parliamentary right to scrutinize
government actions.
One striking difference when comparing the Bundestag with the United
States Congress is the lack of time spent on serving constituents in Germany.
In part, that difference results from the fact that 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.
Composition of the Bundestag by Party,
1949-
Year |
CDU/CSU |
FDP |
SPD |
Greens |
Alliance 90 |
PDS |
Other |
Total Seats |
1949 |
139 |
52 |
131 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
80 |
402 |
1953 |
243 |
48 |
151 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
45 |
487 |
1957 |
270 |
41 |
169 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
17 |
497 |
1961 |
242 |
67 |
190 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
0 |
499 |
1965 |
245 |
49 |
202 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
0 |
496 |
1969 |
242 |
30 |
224 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
0 |
496 |
1972 |
225 |
41 |
230 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
0 |
496 |
1976 |
243 |
39 |
214 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
0 |
496 |
1980 |
226 |
53 |
218 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
0 |
497 |
1983 |
244 |
34 |
193 |
27 |
-- |
-- |
0 |
498 |
1987 |
223 |
46 |
186 |
42 |
-- |
-- |
0 |
497 |
1990 |
319 |
79 |
239 |
0 |
8 |
17 |
0 |
662 |
1994 |
294 |
47 |
252 |
49 |
6 |
30 |
0 |
672 |
- The
Chancellor
- The President
- Legislature
- Bundestag
- Bundesrat
- Electoral System
- Political Parties
- Extraparty Political
Forces
- Geography (lands and
capitals, climate)
- Society (population, religion,
marriage, urbanization, social structure, immigration)
- Education (elementary,
junior, senior, vocational, higher)
- Economy (the Economic
Miracle, financial system, Bundesbank, business culture)
- Politics (government,
the Chancellor, the President, parties, Bundestag)
- Mass Media (newspapers,
radio and TV)
- Armed Forces (army,
navy, air forces, police)
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