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THE STATE & POLITICS
TOPIC
FEDERAL STATE
Germany is a parliamentary and federal dem-
ment that decide which persons will head
ocracy. The German Bundestag, the con-
the ministries they were allocated in the co-
stitutional body most present in the public
alition negotiations. If a coalition collapses,
eye, is directly elected by citizens eligible to
the Chancellor can also fall prior to the end
vote every four years. The most important
of the electoral term, as the Federal Govern-
tasks of the Bundestag are legislation and
ment has the right to vote the head of gov-
to oversee the government’s work. The Bun-
ernment out of office at any time. In such
destag elects the Federal Chancellor for the
cases parliament must, however, name a suc-
legislative period by secret ballot. Within
cessor at the same time in what is known as a
the Federal Government the Chancellor has
“constructive vote of no confidence”. This
the authority to lay down guidelines, in other
means that there can be no period of time
words determines binding broad policy
without an elected government in office.
lines. The Federal Chancellor appoints the
federal ministers, and from among them a
Coalition governments are
Deputy Chancellor. In actual fact, however,
the rule in Germany
it is the parties that make up the governThe system of personalised proportional
representation is decisive with regard to the
character of the parliament. This way,
LIST
smaller parties are also represented in the
Bundestag in proportion to their election
∙ Largest federal state: North RhineWestphalia (17.6 million inhabitants)
results. For this reason, with one exception,
the Federal Government has always been
formed through an alliance of several par-
∙ Highest individual federal ministry
budget: Labour and Social Affairs
(122 billion euros)
∙ Largest Bundestag committee: Economic Affairs and Energy (46 members)
ties that had competed against each other in
the election; since the first Bundestag election in 1949 there have been 23 coalition
governments. To avoid fragmentation in
parliament and make forming a government easier, parties must poll at least five
∙ Highest turnout: 1972 election to the
Bundestag (91.1 percent)
∙ Largest parl. party: CDU/CSU (310 MPs)
per cent of the votes cast (or three direct
mandates) in order to be represented in the
Bundestag (this rule is known as the five
percent hurdle).