GERMANY

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GERMANY
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GERMANY

• Four occupying powers of Germany?
• London Conference?
• The names of two German States?
• Reunification of Germany? Main Factor?
• The type of German Government?

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• Western Europes most populous and richest
  country
• A strong member of EU
• Experienced two devastating world wars
• Hitler engineered what Lucy S. Dawidowicz has
  called The war against Jews.
• Left the country occupied by the victorious
  Allied powers of the United States, United
  Kingdom, France, Soviet Union in 1945
• At the London Conference of the Council of
  Foreign Ministers of the four Occupying powers,
  it was becoming clear that S.U. was not prepared
  to move speedily to a normalization and
  reunification of Germany
• Two German states were formed in 1949 as Western
  Federal Republic of Germany and Eastern German
  Democratic Republic (Communist)
• The decline of USSR and the end of Cold war
  allowed German Unification in 1990
• Government type is Federal Republic (16 States)
• Basic Law became constitution of United German
  people in 1990

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• Basic Law?
• End of Basic Law?
• The most dramatic sign of the partition?
• The most difficult challenges facing the newly
  reunited nation?

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• Basic Law In September 1948, the Parliament
  Council met in Bonn and drafted a document called
  the Basic Law for the 3 Western Occupied Zones
  (give a new order to political life for
  transitional period.) The basic law is similar to
  a constitution.
• shall cease to be in force on the day on which a
  constitution adopted by a free decision of the
  German people comes into force
• The most dramatic sign of the partition was a
  wall dividing the East and West parts of the city
  Berlin
• Challenge bringing the standard of living of
  Germans in the former German Democratic Republic
  (East Germany) up to that of the Federal Republic
  of Germany (West Germany)

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• Federalism?
• Lander?, Land?

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• Germany is the only major state of Western Europe
  that has a federal rather than a unitary
  political structure
• States (16), State

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3 Branches

• Executive?
• Legislative?
• Judicial?

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• Chief of State President Horst Kohler, Head of
  Government Chancellor Angela Merkel (Prime
  minister in other countries), Cabinet Federal
  ministers appointed by the president on the
  recommendation of the chancellor (Executive)
• Bicameral Parliament or Bundestag (Federal Diet,
  lower house, the members are selected by people)
  and Bundesrat (Federal Council, upper
  house,represents the states, the members are
  selected within the majority party) (Legislative)
• Federal Constitutional Court (Judicial)Obligated
  to defend democracy.

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Judicial

• U.S judicial system and German Judicial system?

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• Like the U.S. Supreme court , the constitutional
  court autonomous and has an extremely broad
  jurisdiction
• Germany does have an independent judicial
  structure reflecting its federal character (in
  addition to Constitutional court), with a High
  Court of Justice and four system of courts with
  jurisdictions in administrative, financial
  (especially tax), labor and social issues.
• Only the Constitutional Court can declare
  legislation unconstitutional
• If the other courts find a constitutional
  problem, they must refer the case to
  Constitutional Court (Supreme Court)

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Executive

• President?
• Chancellor?
• Most legislation that reaches the formal policy
  agenda is initiated by the executive branch

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• Member of Parliamentary Council believed that the
  President should be neutralized, which meant that
  she or he should have few, if any, significant
  political powers, and should play the figurehead
  role in office that the constitutional monarchs
  of Britain and Scandinavia play
• Members felt that position of the head of the
  government, the chancellor, should be
  strengthened. The chancellor should not be
  vulnerable to short-term political pressures as
  he had been in the Weimar regime, and his base of
  power should be more secure

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President

• The president is to be elected by a special
  Federal Convention made up of members of the
  Bundestag and an equal number of members elected
  by the legislative assemblies of the states
  (Bundesrat)
• President is legally restricted to the passive
  role
• President must have all orders and decrees
  countersigned is a legal acknowledgment of this
  individuals lack of power in the political
  system
• The two exceptions to the countersignature rule
  are 1-) the appointment and dismissal of the
  federal chancellor, 2-) the dissolution of the
  Bundestag
• President appoints and dismisses ministers,
  federal judges, and federal civil servants,
  promulgates laws, represents the federation in
  its international relations, and concludes
  treaties
• President is expected to be above politics, to
  be nonpartisan, and to represent Germany to the
  world

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Chancellor

• The chief executive in Germany is the Chancellor
• The chancellor is the keystone of the political
  system, the guarantee of stability and coherence
  in the democratic structure of German politics
• The chancellor is more powerful than most
  parliamentary chief executives, primarily because
  the chancellor has greater job security than most
• After elections of the members of the Bundestag,
  the president proposes a chancellor-designate,
  which in the German case has either been the
  leader of the majority party in the Bundestag or
  has been the leader of the apparent majority
  coalition
• If this person has been elected by a majority of
  Bundestag members, the federal president must
  appoint him (or her) within seven days
• Once a chancellor has been confirmed by the
  Bundestag, it is extremely hard to fire that
  individual
• Having majority of members of the Bundestag
  express their lack of confidence in a chancellor
  is not sufficient to dismiss that chancellor
  they must at the same time (actually, prior to
  that time) agree on a successor that a majority
  of the Bundestag can support

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• When Federal President can dissolve the Bundestag?

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• If his nominee for chancellor is not approved by
  the Bundestag, and the chancellor eventually
  chosen by the Bundestag does not have majority
  support and is not acceptable to the president
• If the chancellor requests a vote of Confidence
  in the Bundestag, and the Bundestag fails to give
  him one, and the chancellor subsequently requests
  a dissolution
• Unlike other political systems, in Germany the
  head of State does not possess the legal power to
  dissolve the Bundestag anytime he or she wants to
  do so

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• Why is the German Chancellor strong in his
  political system?

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• A-) being extraordinarily difficult to dismiss
• B-) being able to threaten the legislature with
  dissolution if it is not cooperative

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Legislative

• Bundestag?
• Bundesrat?

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...

• Bundestag is the lower house of the legislature.
  It is the parliament of Germany. It was
  established with Germanys constitution of 1949.
  Together with Bundesrat, the Bundestag is the
  legislative branch of the German Political System
• Bundesrat is the upper house of the legislature.

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• Bills can be introduced by any member of
  Bundestag or Bundesrat or the federal Government
  (the chancellor and the cabinet)
• Bills intended to become federal laws require
  adoption by the Bundestag

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Political Parties and Electoral Process

• Germany is the political system with many
  political parties (CDU, CSU, FDP, SPD, Greens)
• Voting turnout is regularly high
• To limit the danger of tiny parliamentary blocs
  gaining a disproportionate amount of political
  influence and resulting in political instability
  through resultant coalition governments, the
  Federal Election Law introduced the Five Percent
  Clause
• What is the five percent clause?

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• The five percent clause indicates that parties
  can win seats from the proportional
  representation second votes only if they poll at
  least 5 percent of the second votes

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Parties

• CDU is essentially a conservative party and was
  founded in 1945 based upon Christian,
  conservative, social principles (Christian
  Democratic Union)
• CSU is a more national party and founded in 1945
  (Christian Socialist Union) CDUCSU are
  conservatives.
• FDP is the liberal-center party in Germany (Free
  Democratic Party)
• SDP is one of the oldest political parties in
  the world and was a traditional social democratic
  party oriented to the working class (Social
  Democratic Party) The party of working class
  interest.
• Greens Banning genetic engineering in
  agricultureEnvironment

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Bibliography

• Gregory S. Mahler, Comparative Politics, An
  Institutional and Cross-National Approach, Fourth
  Edition
• Michael J. Sodaro, Comparative Politics, A Global
  Introduction, Second Edition
• Michael Curtis , Western European Government
  and Politics, Second Edition