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Politics Politics of Germany takes place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Federal Chancellor is the head of government, and of a plurality multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Federal legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament, Bundestag and Bundesrat. Since 1949, the party system has been dominated by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The Judiciary of Germany is independent of the executive and the legislature. The 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 1933 and was replaced by the dictatorship of the Third Reich.
Since the independence of the judiciary of Germany 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 composed of four levels of courts up to the Bundesgerichtshof in a fairly complex appeals system, there are separate branches for administrative, tax, labour, 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 or her constitutional rights, especially the human rights, have been violated by the state and when he or she has exhausted all stages of appeal in the regular court system. 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 antagonise both the executive and the legislative branches with far-reaching decisions. This has even gone so far as judges openly stating that they are indifferent to the reactions of the government, the Bundestag, public opinion or any financial consequences arising from a decision with the only relevant point being the constitution. It should also be mentioned that the Bundesverfassungsgericht has very high approval rates throughout the general population. The Constitutional Court also handles several other procedures such as disputes between state institutions over their constitutional powers. It has also the power to outlaw political parties when their goals contravene the principles of the constitution. However so far the Constitutional court has only used this power twice, outlawing the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) in 1956 and the SRP (Socialist Reichs Party, a successor to the NSDAP) in 1952. Reichstag - Parlimentary Building
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Germany Additional Links: |
Germany
has on the federal level a bicameral legislature. The parliament has two
chambers. The Bundestag (Federal Diet) nominally has 598 members, elected
for a four year term, 299 members elected in single-seat constituencies
according to first-past-the-post, while a further 299 members are allocated
from statewide party lists to achieve a proportional distribution in the
legislature, conducted according to a system of mixed member proportional
representation. Voters vote once for a constituency representative, and
a second time for a party, and the lists are used to make the party balances
match the distribution of second votes. In the current parliament there
are 16 overhang seats, giving a total of 614. This is caused by larger
parties winning additional single-member districts above the totals determined
by their proportional party vote. A party must receive 5% of the national
vote or win at least three directly elected seats to be represented in
the Bundestag. This rule, often called the "five percent hurdle",
was incorporated into Germany's election law to prevent political fragmentation
and strong minor parties, which was considered a major reason for the
inefficiency of the Weimar Republic's Reichstag. The first Bundestag elections
were held in the Federal Republic of Germany ("West Germany")
on August 14, 1949. Following reunification, elections for the first all-German
Bundestag were held on December 2, 1990. The last election was held on
September 18, 2005, the 16th Bundestag convened on October 18, 2005. The
number of Bundestag Deputies was reduced from 656 to 598 beginning in
2002, although under the additional member system, more deputies may be
admitted if a party wins more directly elected seats than it would be
entitled to under proportional representation.