Bundestag: Composition, Election, and Role in German Politics
The Bundestag (Federal Diet)
Through the formal election of the President of the Government by Parliament, or with procedures such as the vote of confidence, or a plebiscite to reject legislative initiatives, the intention was to strengthen the parliamentary character. Moreover, the role of the Federal President in the parliament was reduced and subjected to tight regulatory control, especially regarding the dissolution of the legislative chambers. Either way, the role of Parliament could not go against another major motivation of the new system: stability. The German parliament has received great symbolic importance in the political culture of postwar Germany. However, this does not mean that all the criticism leveled at the change of functions related to a streamlined parliamentary system, focused mainly on state structures of parties and their incompatibility with the classical division of powers, is not on the political agenda.
Composition and Election
The federal nature of the RFA requires a bicameral structure, although only one House is representative: the Bundestag. The Bundesrat acts as a purely federal court, representing the governments of the federal states (Länder) rather than being configured through elections. Federalism, as a form of political organization, qualifies the idea that there is one people who claim to be sovereign. This was remembered by the German Constitutional Court when establishing that the Länder have their own power that is not delegated by the Federation.
In the German case, the functions of the Bundestag are greater than those of the Bundesrat, but this second chamber has veto power over laws that require its mandatory support. However, it is the Bundestag that is the political center. It is usually where the Chancellor and the Ministers appear, and where the major political debates take place (from the Budget Act to the Debate on the State of the Nation).
The Bundestag is composed of 672 deputies elected for four years through what is known as partially personalized proportional representation. However, the final figure is never fixed, as “surplus seats” must be added. These are the result of the difference between those obtained in the party lists and those obtained directly from the 299 constituencies.
Role and Responsibilities of Deputies
Deputies are representatives of all the people, not being bound to any mandate other than their conscience. They are inviolable for the exercise of their votes or their political statements in the exercise of their functions, and enjoy immunity.
True to its character as the supreme organ of the Federation, the Bundestag elects its President, Vice Presidents, and Secretary and establishes its rules. The incumbent President holds full administrative and police powers in the Bundestag. Hence, there are no guarantees that it will dissolve in advance, except in cases where the proposed Chancellor does not reach the required majority, or the Chancellor loses a vote of confidence and the House cannot find a replacement within 48 hours.
The representation of the Bundestag corresponds to its President, who oversees the administration and is competent to enforce the internal rules of operation. The President is elected by absolute majority. As happened with the Federal President, their role is usually inclined towards reconciliation and integration, according to the character of the German political system, identified as “democracy on the defensive.”
Legislative Functions and Party Discipline
The functions of the Legislature, especially the production of laws and government control, are carried out through work in groups and committees, where it is critical that Members are recruited by political parties.
Often, there is a contradiction between the cooperation of the parties in forming the political will of the people and the prohibition of a binding mandate, given the existing rigid party discipline. Underlying this problem is the fact that liberalism is a normative theory of reality, and not a positive one; that is, it invents the reality it names, rather than merely describing it from budgetary targets. Thus, alterations in some of its assumptions (representative office or representing the whole nation, for example) would lead to the total bankruptcy of the system’s legitimizing element, sustained on the fiction of a homogeneous parliament representing all interests, classes, and ideologies of the nation.