German Federalism An outdated relict?

Lionel Wijesiri

The other day I was listening to a radio discussion where a local university professor argued that if we have adopted the German electoral system, we could have brought about a cultured political atmosphere. Most of us today are not knowledgeable about the German system of Government and it may be worthwhile to take a brief look at it to evaluate whether the professor has sense in his comment.

Germany’s Federal Government consists of two legislative bodies, the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. The Bundestag (or the Parliament) is popularly elected at intervals of four years. Each eligible voter casts two ballots in the election. The elector’s first vote is cast for a candidate running to represent a particular district. The candidate who receives a plurality of votes becomes the district representative. Half of the Bundestag members are directly elected from these districts.

The voter’s second ballot is cast for a particular political party. These second votes determine each party’s share of the popular vote and also determines how many Bundestag seats each party will receive. If a party wins more constituency seats than it is entitled to according to its share of the vote in the second ballot, the party retains those seats, and the size of the Bundestag is increased. That is why the number of seats in the Bundestag varies from election to election; there were 614 seats in 2005.

Only those parties which win over five per cent of all the registered votes, or three constituency seats, are allowed to get any representation in the Bundestag. This is done to prevent complications in the formation of majorities by the presence of small and very small parties by eventually stopping them being represented in the Bundestag.

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Functions

There are 3 major functions of the elected representatives of Bundestag: (1) elect the Federal Chancellor and keep him in office through support for his policies. However they also can relieve the Chancellor of his duties by denying him their confidence. (2) Pass legislation.

The Bundestag, however, is less like the debating parliament typified by our parliamentary culture and corresponds more closely to a working parliament. (3) Keep a check on the Government’s work. It is the opposition that fulfils the function of monitoring the work of Government in a manner visible to the general public.

Then there is also the ‘Federal Convention’, which is made up of members of the Bundestag, on the one hand, and by an equal number of members selected by parliaments of the 16 Federal States, on the other.

It selects the Federal President who is the head of State of the Federal Republic of Germany. He represents the country in its dealings with other countries and appoints Government members, judges and high-ranking civil servants. With his signature, acts become legally binding. He can dismiss the Government and, in exceptional cases, dissolve parliament before its term of office is completed.

The German Law does not accord the Federal President a right of veto. Though he confirms parliamentary decisions and Government proposals with regard to ministers, he only checks whether they have come about by the due procedure in accordance with the law. The Federal President stays in office for a period of five years; he can be re-elected only once.

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Chancellor

The Federal Chancellor remains the key person in the Government. The Constitution empowers him to personally choose his ministers, who head the most important political authorities. It is he who lays down the guidelines of Government policy. This authority gives the Federal Chancellor a whole array of instruments of leadership that easily stands up to a comparison with the power of the President in a presidential democracy.

As a rule, in the Bundestag no one party has a clear majority. For this reason a coalition, in other words an alliance of various parties is normally necessary to be able to elect a Chancellor.

The strongest party in the alliance is accorded the right to propose the Federal Chancellor. In addition the parties agree on the policies they intend to tackle in the next few years. The results of these coalition negotiations are enshrined in the coalition treaty. Only when these steps have been completed is the Chancellor elected.

In the history of the Federal Republic, there has never been a genuine defeat in a vote of no confidence.

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Federal States

The German Federal State is a complex entity. It consists of a central Federal Government and 16 Federal States. The law lays out in great detail which issues fall within the ambit of the Federal Government and which devolve to the Federal States.

The Central Federal laws mainly regulate living conditions of the people. To this extent the German federal state resembles a centralized state. Nonetheless it is the Federal States that control the major part of State administration. This means that federalist elements dominate the State administrative systems.

First, as is typical of a Federal State, its own administrative system enforces the laws that apply in that particular state. There are three functions that the individual Federal States exercise on their own: schooling, internal security (including policing) as well as the organization of local self-government. Thanks to the wide-ranging rights pertaining to guaranteed participation they enjoy in the Bundesrat, the Federal States receive a form of compensation for the fact that Central Government is the primary body determining legislation.

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Bundesrat

Bundesrat is the other legislative body of the German Federal system. It has 69 members and is appointed by the 16 State Governments. Representation is determined by population, with each State having no less than three and no more than six seats.

The four largest States each have six-member delegations; the four smallest States each have three-member delegations; and all the other States have four seats each. This ratio actually favours the smaller and smallest States because it gives them a veto over any action that requires a two-thirds majority, such as Constitutional amendments.

Each State delegation must vote as a block and according to the instructions of its State Government. In its legislative role, the Bundesrat has only a suspensive veto (whereby it can delay but not actually prevent the passage of bills approved by the Bundestag) over most legislation.

The exception to this is bills that deal with the administrative responsibilities of the State Governments, which are the more important bills before parliament. On these, the Bundesrat has a veto, which cannot be overridden.