City Mayors: Local government in Germany Local government in Germany shaped by regional differences By Gregor Gosciniak and Andrew Stevens 12 September 2006: Germany is a federal parliamentary democracy, made up of 16 states. Within the federal system an array of different state and local government systems exist. Largely for historical reasons, there is no common system across Germany. | President | Federal parliament | Upper house | Federal government | Political parties | States | Local government | President The head of the Federal Republic of Germany is the President (Bundespräsident)  currently Horst Köhler, elected in 2004 - though his post is largely ceremonial. The President represents the whole of Germany and does not have the power to make political decisions. The German President is elected for five years by the Bundesversammlung, the special federal assembly convened of members of the federal parliament (Bundestag) and an equal number of representatives from the German states. Parliament (lower house) The German parliament (Bundestag) is based in the German capital Berlin.

The Bundestag sits in the Reichtstag building which was built at the end of the 19th century during the imperial era. The name Reichstag itself means Empire Diet. The politicians represented in the Bundestag are the members of parliament. Correctly they are denoted Mitglieder des Bundestages (MdB). The parliament consists of elected members - Germany’s electoral system is a mixture of majority voting and proportional representation known as the Additional Member System (AMS). Half of the seats in parliament are to elected by direct voting by the citizens, the other half are given by lists of candidates drawn up by the political parties in the 16 federal states. Parliament (upper house) The German upper house, the Bundesrat, is the federal body in which the sixteen Länder governments are directly represented. Members of the Bundesrat are not elected by the public but are appointed by their respective state governments. Members tend to be state ministers. The Bundesrat has 69 members. Länder with more than seven million inhabitants have six seats (Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Lower Saxony, and the state with most citizens, North Rhine-Westphalia).

Hesse, with a population of just over six million, has five seats in the Bundesrat. The Länder with populations of between 2 million and 7 million have four seats each (Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia). The least populous states, those with fewer than 2 million inhabitants, receive three seats each (Bremen, Hamburg, and the Saarland). This system of representation, although designed to reflect the size of the states, affords greater representation per inhabitant to the smaller states. The presidency of the Bundesrat rotates annually among the Länder. By law, each Land delegation is required to vote as a bloc in accordance with the instructions of its government. Most German laws can only be changed if the mayority of the Bundesrat agrees. So even if a law passes the lower chamber, Bundestag, it can be blocked in the upper chamber. Government The leader of the German government is the Federal Chancellor. Angela Merkel, elected in 2005, is the first female head of government in German history.

The Chancellor and her ministers form the cabinet, which forms government. By law the Chancellor defines the guidelines for the government’s policies. The ministers represent their own areas of responsibility independently within these guidelines. To elect the Chancellor, a majority vote of members of parliament is needed. Political parties Political parties are a fundamental part of the German and are specifically mentioned in the constitution. They are formed by groups of citizens who wish to get influence on German politics and act as representatives of the people in the Bundestag, state parliaments (Landestage) and in local parliaments. They must prove that they will adhere to the democratic principles of the German state. At the moment the German parliament consists of members of the following parties: CDU/CSU (conservative), SPD (social democrats), Bündnis90/Die Grünen (Green Party), FDP (liberals) and PDS (democratic socialists). The federal election takes place every four years. The elected Bundestag is the highest legislative organ in Germany. All federal legislation comes from the Bundestag.

States Germany is a federal parliamentary democracy, made up of 16 federal states (Länder), this having increased with the 1990 unification of East and West Germany with the demise of the former German Democratic Republic (DDR) in 1989. The Länder are Northrhine Westphalia, Bavaria; Saxony, Baden-Württemberg, Hessen, Schleswig-Holstein, Sachsen-Anhalt, Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheinland Pfalz Saarland, and Thuringia, and the city-states Hamburg, Berlin and Bremen. Each Land elects a regional parliament, or Landtag, for a four year term and this in turn appoints an administration (Landsregierung) headed by a minister-president (Ministerpräsident). The Länder are responsible for areas such as culture, education, environment and policing, with a number of shared responsibilities with the federal government over legal and penal issues. In general, administration in Germany in most cases is the responsibility of the Länder, which implement Länder laws at Länder level, and they implement federal laws as an administration on behalf of the Federation or in their own responsibility.

In the fields of public order and security, science and culture, education, professional training the Länder are responsible for creating legislation and for the administration another important duty of the Länder is regional governmental planning in order to creating equal living conditions for the citizens in the Länder. Another important objective of regional governmental planning is the protection and conservation of the environment. Despite the variances within the German system across the Länder, there are some common features among local governments. Local government In all but one of the 16 Länder, the council system exists whereby each local government, in the form of the municipal council, is generally elected on a five year term, though this can vary between four and six years. Each council is headed by an elected mayor, known as the Bürgermeister, who acts as head of both the council and the administration. The mandate can vary from four to nine years. In the Land of Hessen however, the magistrat system is used, whereby the mayor presides over magistrates appointed by the council to act as the administration. Common responsibilities of this tier include planning, water management, social welfare and the building and maintenance of schools. Some councils also engage in cultural, economic development and energy-related activities, depending on the Land.

There are around 14,000 municipalities in the 16 Lander. Above the local tier and beneath the Lander, a tier of 300 units of local administration known as Kreise (districts) also exists. These are overseen by a district council, with a mandate varying between one and four years, again according to the Land. Aside from the legislative function of its council, the administration (Landratsamt) is headed by a district president (Landrat), who is either appointed by the council or directly elected for a five to eight year term. This tier engages in the construction and maintenance of roads, some aspects of social welfare and waste management, though some are also able to engage in tourism promotion, libraries and higher education. Cities represent the lowest level within the three administrative levels (federal, state, city) in Germany. The Federation and the Länder put certain tasks to the municipalities  they are also supposed to allocate the corresponding funding with it which, in reality, is not always the case. Within the framework of self-administration, the cities organise and administrate their own voluntary activities which they also have to pay for from the cities own budgets.

The cities’ own activities are part of the city’s so-called own circle of responsibility. These may be voluntary or they may be prescribed by the state as obligatory. In such cases, the state does not interfere in the implementation of such activities nor does it issue instructions. Also the cities have to take care of additional tasks which have been allocated to them by the state. These tasks are part of the so called circle of allocated responsibilities in which the state uses municipal institutions and organises the implementation of allocated responsibilities by instructions. Voluntary activities are fulfilled by the municipality and the municipality itself decides how these are handled. Another field of activity are the obligatory areas which are not directed from above, like water, waste disposal, energy supply and such. The municipality is free to handle activities in these fields on their own or elect to outsource them to private businesses, which has become a common practice during recent years. The so-called activities commissioned by the Land are carried out by the municipal administration in its area, as the lowest official body in the federal system. These include the organisation of elections, the registration for the military and others.

Government and Political Structure - Germany Legal Research Guide - LibGuides at University of Wisconsin Law Library Germany Legal Research Guide Search Germany Legal Research Guide This is a guide to UW-Madison campus and e-resources for research in German law. Note that many sources here are in German, and in-depth research will require knowledge of German. Cases Online Government and Political Structure Germany is a federal, democratic republic comprised of sixteen states (Länder or Laender). Power is distributed between the federal and state governments. (The Law Library does not collect German state law.) At the federal level, the German constitution divides power between the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judiciary. Within the executive branch, the most powerful official is the Federal Chancellor, who acts as head of state, controls the federal government, and appoints Federal Ministers. In addition to the Chancellor, the German government elects a Federal President who acts in a mainly ceremonial capacity. The highest bodies in the legislative branch are the two chambers of parliament, the Bundestag (Federal Assembly) and Bundesrat (Federal Council). Judicial power in Germany is exercised by the federal courts, courts of the Länder, and the Bundesverfassungsgericht (BverfG).

The federal courts are courts of appeal, and are at the head of five legal hierarchies: Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice), Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court), Bundesarbeitsgericht (Federal Labour Court), Bundessozialgericht (Federal Social Court, and the Bundesfinanzhof (Federal Tax Court). Länder, or State courts, are the trial courts and also preside over appeals in the initial states. The BVerfG is divided into two panels, each consisting of eight judges. The first panel considers cases concerning basic human rights, while the other senate resolves constitutional disputes. Author What Germany offers the world | The Economist Germany’s economic model What Germany offers the world Other countries would love to import Germany’s economic model. But its way of doing things is a lot less amenable to export than the wares it produces Apr 14th 2012 Correction to this article THE European Central Bank controls Europe's currency from Frankfurt, Germany's financial centre. Beckhoff Automation, in a bucolic corner of Westphalia, controls the bank. Or more precisely, its devices control the bank's lighting and ventilation.

Other Beckhoff gizmos raise the curtain and dim the lights at Milan's Teatro alla Scala. Yet more are embedded in luxury sailboats, in dancing fountains outside Las Vegas hotels and in half the wind turbines made in China. Omnipresent but obscure, family owned but by no means puny, Beckhoff is among thousands of “hidden champions” that account for much of Germany's prowess as a manufacturer and exporter. Its sales leapt 34% to €465m ($608m) last year. It is aiming for €2 billion by 2020. Beckhoff exports more than half its output. But its manufacturing is mainly in high-wage, rule-bound Germany. Largely thanks to its Beckhoffs, Germany looks like a bright exception to the dispiriting rule among developed economies. True, its economy contracted more than those of most rich countries during the 2008-09 world recession (see chart 1). But the jobless rate rose by less than in all the others, peaking at 7.9%. And nobody talks about downgrading Germany's AAA credit rating; it can borrow money for practically nothing.

Envy and emulation Not all the news is good. The economy shrank in the final quarter of 2011; and even if first quarter figures do not reveal Germany itself to be in recession, its economy will continue to suffer the drag of recession elsewhere in the euro area and a slowdown in developing countries. But just 1% growth is enough to create jobs, according to Bert Rürup, a former chairman of the government's council of economic “wise men”. In a book written with a journalist, Dirk Heilmann, “Fat Years: Why Germany has a Brilliant Future”, he giddily predicts that by 2030 Germany will become the world's richest large country in terms of income per head. Such success does not bring universal admiration. Germany is hated in parts of Europe for demanding growth-crushing austerity as the price for supporting the euro. Greek tabloids have depicted Angela Merkel, the chancellor, in Nazi uniform. A current account surplus larger than China's as a share of GDP is a badge of pride for many Germans (see chart 2).

But economists such as Simon Tilford of the Centre for European Reform (CER) accuse them of “fetishising exports” while low wage growth depresses their demand for goods from other countries. When in 2010 Christine Lagarde, then France's finance minister and now head of the International Monetary Fund, questioned whether Germany's export-dependent model was “sustainable” she spoke for many. Yet there is also a great deal of admiration. Spain's education minister is looking into Germany's “dual system” of vocational training, which combines classroom instruction with work experience. John Cridland, director of the Confederation of British Industry, wants Britain “to have its own version of the German Mittelstand”, ie, firms like Beckhoff. Nicolas Sarkozy began his campaign for re-election as France's president sounding as if he would gladly swallow the model whole. Germany prioritised “jobs, jobs, jobs,” he said. “If it worked for them, why wouldn't it work for us?” But is the model copiable? After a few days in East Westphalia-Lippe (now marketing itself to the world as OWL) you wonder.

Beckhoff and its peers have global ambitions but their business culture has deep provincial roots. They look back as much as forward. “We have existed since 1825 and have been doing the same thing since then,” says Dieter Brand, chairman of the Sparkasse, or savings bank, in Bielefeld, the region's biggest town. In some senses the same is true of his corporate customers. Germany may have reformed and rearticulated its model in recent years. But the underlying skeleton is ancient, and perhaps inimitable. Two decades ago, the country seemed distinctly arthritic. The euphoria of unification in 1990 was followed by the sharpest recession since the second world war. Some 500,000 manufacturing jobs were lost. Business was menaced by an overvalued D-mark, nimble Asian competitors and unification's huge costs. The economy had become rigid and uncompetitive, moaned entrepreneurs. The then-president, Roman Herzog, captured the zeitgeist in 1997 when he spoke of “the loss of economic dynamism, the torpor of society, an unbelievable mental depression”.

Reformers clamoured for elements of the German model, like vocational training and centralised wage bargaining, to be scrapped. Shaping up Instead it was made more limber. Business outsourced some production to eastern Europe; fear of that process extracted concessions from German workers, who offered flexibility on wages and work hours in exchange for greater job security. In the subsequent decade manufacturing's share of GDP rose even as it was falling elsewhere (see chart 3). In the early 2000s, with growth still in low gear and unemployment in double digits, the then-chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, a Social Democrat, started another round of gruelling physiotherapy. His labour-market reforms reduced unemployment benefits and liberalised temporary work. Since she became chancellor in 2005 Mrs Merkel of the Christian Democrats has raised the pension age from 65 to 67 and amended the constitution to require state and federal governments to cut their structural budget deficits to more or less zero (the template for what is now a Europe-wide agreement). Benefits thought to be sacrosanct were cut. Income inequality rose. But so did employment. Core workers in industrial firms—the muscle behind Germany's manufacturing prowess—were not affected directly.

But the rise in low-paid, insecure jobs has held down the cost of services, making it easier for factory workers to accept modest pay rises, points out Anke Hassel of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. The original assembly of the German model also dates to a recessionary crisis following hard on the heels of a unification: a 23-year-long slump starting in 1873, two years after Bismarck finally succeeded in pulling Germany together into a single state. This Gründekrise and its prolonged aftermath forged new ideas about how capital, labour and the state should relate to one another. An 1884 law created the dual-board system of corporate governance in its current form, with a managing Vorstand answerable to a separate supervisory board. Among the supervisors were bankers, who provided “patient capital”, and scientists, whose expertise was valued as highly. The vocational training system, set up during the 1880s, provided new producers of chemicals and machinery with skilled and loyal workers. Bismarck established the welfare state in part to cater to their needs.

The way the health insurance system worked required capital and labour to co-operate, paving the way for works councils and, almost a century later, for mandatory representation for the workers on the supervisory boards of large companies. Explore our interactive guide to Europe's troubled economies The “co-ordinated market economy” has withstood dictatorship, wars, revolutions and globalisation. It prizes trust, relying on the principle that nobody will “make full use of his freedom” by grabbing everything he can, says Werner Abelshauser, an economic historian at the University of Bielefeld. Its elements are “so tightly meshed”, he has written, “that it would be difficult to replace any one of them with an alien component.” The trust and co-ordination may be national properties, but their roots are typically quite local. Before Bismarck, Germany's provinces, principalities and palatinates often had rulers who were keen to establish local industries. In 1678 Brandenburg's Great Elector gave Bielefeld the privilege of certifying the quality of local linen, cementing its position as a centre for the textile trade.

Centuries later Beckhoff's first customers made machines for the furniture industry that had developed out of the crate-making trade that had grown with the export of textiles. Dozens of other regions can tell similar stories, and these concentrations have become part of the country's contemporary success. On a list of 100 clusters picked by the European Cluster Observatory for their size, level of specialisation and location in “innovative regions”, Germany occupies 30 places. Germany experimented with American-style standardised production during and after the second world war, which was one reason why it imported unskilled guest workers from Turkey and elsewhere. The Siren across the Atlantic called again in the 1990s and 2000s, urging Germany to deregulate, embrace services and maximise “shareholder value”. When that call was silenced by the financial crisis, “Germany had its consensus model to go back to,” says Gustav Horn of the union-linked Macroeconomic Policy Institute. Small towns in Germany Hans Beckhoff, boss of the automation company that bears his name, does not come off as a throwback. His silver-grey hair is modishly long, his collar unbuttoned. But some of his habits seem distinctly old-fashioned.

Take his approach to debt: he's against it. Investment in the company is funded by him and his three siblings, the only shareholders. It is the same with nearby Miele, a 113-year-old maker of kitchen equipment and white goods, with annual sales of €3 billion. This is not the most efficient way to run a company. With more leverage Mittelstand firms could boost their pre-tax profit by several points, notes Armin Schmiedeberg of Bain, a consultancy. He thinks they are wise not to. The point is not to maximise short-term profit, says Markus Miele, a managing director at his firm, but to aim at “where we want to be when we hand over to the next generation.” Mr Beckhoff says he fends off monthly offers to buy his company. Lack of financial ambition goes along with the observance of unwritten sumptuary laws. “Families behind the Mittelstand live in an acceptable, modest and healthy way,” says Mr Beckhoff. Maybe that is because they lean so heavily on the skilled workers the country is so good at producing.

Around half of German high-school students go on to dual training in one of 344 trades, from tanner to dental technician. Many of the courses are set by unions and employers' federations. State and local governments provide the schools where apprentices get their theory. Chambers of commerce and industry run the exams. When foreigners ask why youth unemployment is so low (just 8.2% compared with Spain's 50.5%), older Germans tout the dual system. Young Germans are not so convinced; it is the first choice of just a fifth of high-school students, says Swen Binner of the Bielefeld chamber of commerce. And the number of school leavers in OWL is dropping by 2% a year while demand for skills is rising. Business is adapting by blurring the previously sharp distinction between vocational and university training. Beckhoff now offers “academic apprenticeships”, which combine hands-on experience with study at a technical university. The relationship between conscientious proprietors and diligent craftsmen is not without conflict, but it is set in a governance framework that contains disagreements without stifling them, and can deliver flexibility.

In the metal and electrical engineering sector, the heart of manufacturing, labour contracts still tend to be settled on an industry-wide basis (outsourcing trouble, as some bosses see it). Knowing what's kneaded The entrepreneurs of OWL are confident that global trends will continue to go their way. 5 billion people can reasonably aspire to join the 1 billion who are already well off, says Mr Beckhoff. It will take “a lot of engineering” to pull that off without environmental ruin and strife over resources, and that will provide ever more opportunities for manufacturers. As the aerospace industry turns to new materials like titanium and car makers shrink engines to boost efficiency, they provide machine-tool makers with new markets. And old markets can be refined as they grow. WP Kemper, a maker of baking equipment near Bielefeld, expects demand for dough to double over the next decade, as consumers in developing countries broaden their diets. The new generation of bakers will be unfamiliar with the mysteries of European bread, so Kemper is working on an “intelligent kneader” that knows when dough is ready. Many Mittelstand firms are oligopolists, argues Mr Schmiedeberg, occupying niches so narrow that they attract few rivals.

Increasingly, the niches are being defended with services, in this context not the term of derision it often is in manufacturing circles. Beckhoff builds its own sales and maintenance networks, relying little on dealers—unlike some of its non-German competitors. The next stage is “hybrid value-added”, in which the product is an outcome that the customer wants rather than the good that produces it. Wolf Heiztechnik of Bavaria is developing a contract under which it sells temperature control rather than heating equipment. “Every Chinese firm can do the industrial part, not the whole hybrid,” says Karl Lichtblau of IW Consult, a consultancy. Counting industry-related services, he reckons, manufacturing's share of GDP is more like 30% than 20%. In places like Bielefeld the future looks like an extension of the past. Not everything changes at once, and institutions are there to help out. When the machine-building department at Bielefeld's University of Applied Sciences looked in danger of closing, industry drummed up interest among students to keep it open.

IT'S OWL, a new initiative by machine builders, car-part suppliers and electronics companies, enlists universities to add intelligence to regional products, like Kemper's smart kneader. “We are successful because we have companies behind us and companies ahead of us,” says Mr Beckhoff. His advice to politicians: don't break the chain. But is the success of which he is justly proud enough? And is it something other countries can learn from? The platform for Germany's success looks precariously narrow. Vehicles, machines, electronic devices and chemicals account for more than half of Germany's exports, and exports provided nearly all Germany's growth from 2001 to 2007. Optimists think Germany can keep its share of world trade, which grows twice as fast as global output, and thus stay ahead. But this is a big bet on a thin slice of the economy. Employment in manufacturing proper is less than a fifth of the total. In unglamorous, non-export oriented services Germany is in a much sorrier state. Stunted services depress incomes and investment. The OECD predicts that, as the population ages, potential growth will drop, falling below 1% by 2020.

“The underlying issue is raising productivity in services and increasing wages in line with that,” says Mr Tilford of the CER. Germany could do a lot more to perk up domestic demand. Deregulation of professional services would boost productivity and investment. Barriers to women working, including incentive-killing tax and benefit regimes and a shortage of crèches, should be removed. And Mr Tilford finds it “astonishing” that a country with a current-account surplus as big as Germany's insists on balancing its budget. Demographic decline could initially be a blessing, shifting power to workers as the workforce shrinks, with the subsequent increase in labour costs boosting domestic demand (see chart 4). Verdi, the services union, extracted a 6.3% pay rise from federal and municipal governments last month. In the engineering sector, where talks are under way, bosses are encountering a more assertive union. Domestic demand is expected to provide all this year's growth, partly because Germany's European trading partners are in such bad shape. Many of them would profit from becoming more like Germany in terms of building business success, but there are limits.

Any leader with backing and boldness can imitate some of what Germany did when its joints were stiffened, like raising the pension age (which France has only just started on) or cutting social-security contributions, as Mr Sarkozy talks of doing. Southern Europe's crash programme of structural reform is partly inspired by Germany. The dual system may be exportable, though not overnight. But it is another matter to excel in high-end capital goods or to assign to enterprise, unions and the state roles that Germany has been practising, with disastrous interruptions, for more than a century. During the crisis Italy introduced a short-time working scheme like Germany's, but the results were disappointing: Italian firms and their workers could not mimic Germany's ordered flexibility. Germany can offer lessons in how to get back into shape; but the essence of its model is rooted too deeply to be copied with ease. Correction: In the original version of this story an out-of-date IMF GDP estimate was used in the first chart. The chart now displayed uses IMF estimates released in April this year. This was corrected on April 19th 2012.

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Party of Democratic Socialism <>Political Developments since Unification Germany - The Constitution Another question that arose with unification was where to locate the new German capital.

The Bundestag voted in June 1991 to move the capital from <""> Bonn to Berlin, fulfilling a long-standing promise of West German politicians across the board. The vote in favor of Berlin was surprisingly narrow, with 338 legislators supporting Berlin and 320 supporting Bonn. Many of the parliamentarians who voted for Bonn spoke of the symbolic importance of the capital's geographical location, with Bonn bearing witness to the critical importance of the Atlantic Alliance and Germany's commitment to Western democracy. Many who supported Berlin saw their choice as a necessary act of conciliation toward eastern Germans and a necessary step toward Germany's return to the world stage as a "normal" nation. The quick move to Berlin that many eastern Germans had hoped for was thwarted by a quiet, yet effective, campaign led by Bonn bureaucrats and certain key politicians who opposed the Bundestag decision on several grounds. First, members of this group cited the huge expense of moving the government, estimated at just under US$19 billion by the Ministry of Finance. Second, they argued that Berlin's historical associations as the capital of a united Germany were negative and that Germany should avoid doing something to suggest to its neighbors a return to expansionist or aggressive tendencies.

Third, many officials balked at the personal inconvenience of moving to Berlin if they owned homes in the Bonn area or otherwise faced having to uproot their families from the rather provincial Rhineland and relocate in a booming metropolis. After two years of indecision, the Kohl cabinet announced in October 1993 that the government would complete the move to Berlin by December 31, 2000; the move will begin in 1998. The opposition Social Democrats had threatened to make the government's reluctance to move an issue in the 1994 national election campaign. Foreign embassies and private companies had delayed their moves to Berlin while waiting for an official announcement of a timetable. The cabinet decision sent a decisive message to investors and property developers who believed the move would attract greater investment in the five eastern L�nder . The Bonn lobby won certain important concessions as well: eight government ministries will keep their headquarters in Bonn, and the remainder will retain offices there. Kohl received sharp criticism about the distant deadline from some commentators, who argued that the government's hesitation to complete the move was impeding the social and psychological unification of east and west.

Many Germans see the prosecution of former East German officials as a necessary part of coming to terms with divided Germany's past. On November 12, 1992, a trial opened in Berlin involving six defendants, including former East German leader Erich Honecker, former minister of state security Erich Mielke, and former prime minister Willi Stoph. These men were put on trial for the killings of East Germans trying to cross the border to the west. Two days later, however, Mielke and Stoph were declared unfit to stand trial for health reasons. Charges were then dropped against Honecker because of his advanced cancer, and he was allowed to join his family in Chile in early 1993. The remaining three defendants--all former members of East Germany's National Defense Council--were convicted in September 1993, receiving prison sentences ranging from four-and-one-half years to seven-and-one-half years. From the start, the legal basis for the trials was questionable. German law does not apply to acts committed by East German citizens in a state that no longer exists.

Thus, the defendants had to be prosecuted for transgressions of East German law, and East Germany's border law allowed guards to shoot anyone trying to flee. The Berlin prosecutors argued that the law was evil and ought not to have been obeyed, a form of reasoning with which the judges agreed. Many legal scholars believe that the convictions could be reversed on appeal, however. In part, the prosecution of these former East German leaders grew out of public indignation over the trials of border guards while senior policy makers were going free. By late 1993, ten border guards had stood trial. Nine received short, suspended sentences or acquittals; one received a sentence of six years for having shot and killed a fugitive who had already been caught and was under arrest. In the fall of 1993, the Bundestag extended the statute of limitations by three years for minor crimes by former East German officials and by five years for more serious crimes. Most observers of Germany believe the country will solve the economic and political challenges associated with the unification process. However, polls indicated that, as time passed, eastern and western Germans seemed to see the gap between them widening rather than narrowing.

In an April 1993 poll, when asked whether eastern and western Germans felt solidarity or antagonism toward one another, 71 percent in the west and 85 percent in the east answered "antagonism." In the coming years, perhaps the greatest challenge to Germans of the east and west will be to master the task of achieving social harmony. Only then can they become one nation. CITATION: Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress . The Country Studies Series. Published 1988-1999. Please note: This text comes from the Country Studies Program, formerly the Army Area Handbook Program. The Country Studies Series presents a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of countries throughout the world. TRY USING CTRL-F on your keyboard to find the appropriate section of text Germany - The Legislature The Legislature Germany Table of Contents The heart of any parliamentary system of government is the legislature. Germany has a bicameral parliament. The two chambers are the Bundestag (Federal Diet or lower house) and the Bundesrat (Federal Council or upper house).

Both chambers can initiate legislation, and most bills must be approved by both chambers, as well as the executive branch, before becoming law. Legislation on issues within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government, such as international treaties, does not require Bundesrat approval. The federal government introduces most legislation; when it does so, the Bundesrat reviews the bill and then passes it on to the Bundestag. If a bill originates in the Bundesrat, it is submitted to the Bundestag through the executive branch. If the Bundestag introduces a bill, it is sent first to the Bundesrat and, if approved there, forwarded to the executive. The Joint Conference Committee resolves any differences over legislation between the two legislative chambers. Once the compromise bill that emerges from the conference committee has been approved by a majority in both chambers and by the cabinet, it is signed into law by the federal president and countersigned by the relevant cabinet minister. Bundestag The Bundestag is the principal legislative chamber, roughly analogous to the United States House of Representatives.

The Bundestag has grown gradually since its creation, most dramatically with unification and the addition of 144 new representatives from eastern Germany, for a total of 656 deputies in 1990. A further expansion in 1994 increased the number to 672. Elections are held every four years (or earlier if a government falls from power). Bundestag members are the only federal officials directly elected by the public. All candidates must be at least twenty-one years old; there are no term limits. The most important organizational structures within the Bundestag are parliamentary groups (Fraktionen ; sing., Fraktion ), which are formed by each political party represented in the chamber. The size of a party's Fraktion determines the extent of its representation on legislative committees, the number of committee chairs it can hold, and its representation in executive bodies of the Bundestag. The head of the largest Fraktion is named president of the Bundestag. The Fraktionen , not the members, receive the bulk of government funding for legislative and administrative activities. The leadership of each Fraktion consists of a parliamentary party leader, several deputy leaders, and an executive committee.

The leadership's major responsibilities are to represent the Fraktion , enforce party discipline, and orchestrate the party's parliamentary activities. The members of each Fraktion are distributed among working groups focused on specific policy-related topics such as social policy, economics, and foreign policy. The Fraktion meets once a week to consider legislation before the Bundestag and formulate the party's position on it. The Bundestag's executive bodies include the Council of Elders and the Presidium. The council consists of the Bundestag leadership, together with the most senior representatives of each Fraktion , with the number of these representatives tied to the strength of the party in the chamber. The council is the coordination hub, determining the daily legislative agenda and assigning committee chairpersons based on party representation. The council also serves as an important forum for interparty negotiations on specific legislation and procedural issues. The Presidium is responsible for the routine administration of the Bundestag, including its clerical and research activities. It consists of the chamber's president and vice presidents (one from each Fraktion ). Most of the legislative work in the Bundestag is the product of standing committees.

Although this is common practice in the United States Congress, it is uncommon in other parliamentary systems, such as the British House of Commons and the French National Assembly. The number of committees approximates the number of federal ministries, and the titles of each are roughly similar (e.g., defense, agriculture, and labor). Between 1987 and 1990, the term of the eleventh Bundestag, there were twenty-one standing committees. The distribution of committee chairs and the membership of each committee reflect the relative strength of the various parties in the chamber. In the eleventh Bundestag, the CDU/CSU chaired eleven committees, the SPD eight, the FDP one, and the environmentalist party, the Greens (Die Gr�nen), one. Unlike in the United States Congress, where all committees are chaired by members of the majority party, the German system allows members of the opposition party to chair a significant number of standing committees. These committees have either a small staff or no staff at all. Although most legislation is initiated by the executive branch, the Bundestag considers the legislative function its most important responsibility. The Bundestag concentrates much of its energy on assessing and amending the government's legislative program.

The committees play a prominent role in this process. Plenary sessions provide a forum for members to engage in public debate on legislative issues before them, but they tend to be well attended only when significant legislation is being considered. The Bundestag allots each Fraktion a certain amount of time, based on its size, to express its views. Other responsibilities of the Bundestag include selecting the federal chancellor and exercising oversight of the executive branch on issues of both substantive policy and routine administration. This check on executive power can be employed through binding legislation, public debates on government policy, investigations, and direct questioning of the chancellor or cabinet officials. For example, the Bundestag can conduct a question hour (Fragestunde ), in which a government representative responds to a previously submitted written question from a member. Members can ask related questions during the question hour. The questions can concern anything from a major policy issue to a specific constituent's problem. Use of the question hour has increased markedly over the past forty years, with more than 20,000 questions being posed during the 1987-90 Bundestag term. Understandably, the opposition parties are active in exercising the parliamentary right to scrutinize government actions.

One striking difference when comparing the Bundestag with the United States Congress is the lack of time spent on serving constituents in Germany. In part, that difference results from the fact that only 50 percent of Bundestag deputies are directly elected to represent a specific geographic district; the other half are elected as party representatives. The political parties are thus of great importance in Germany's electoral system, and many voters tend not to see the candidates as autonomous political personalities but rather as creatures of the party. Interestingly, constituent service seems not to be perceived, either by the electorate or by the representatives, as a critical function of the legislator. A practical constraint on the expansion of constituent service is the limited personal staff of Bundestag deputies. Bundesrat The second legislative chamber, the Bundesrat, is the federal body in which the sixteen Land governments are directly represented. It exemplifies Germany's federalist system of government. Members of the Bundesrat are not popularly elected but are appointed by their respective Land governments. Members tend to be Land government ministers. The Bundesrat has sixty-nine members.

The L�nder with more than 7 million inhabitants have six seats (Baden-W�rttemberg, Bavaria, Lower Saxony, and North Rhine-Westphalia). The L�nder with populations of between 2 million and 7 million have four seats ( Berlin , Brandenburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and Thuringia). The least populous L�nder , with fewer than 2 million inhabitants, receive three seats each (Bremen, Hamburg , and the Saarland). This system of representation, although designed to reflect Land populations accurately, in fact affords greater representation per inhabitant to the smaller L�nder . The presidency of the Bundesrat rotates annually among the L�nder . By law, each Land delegation is required to vote as a bloc in accordance with the instructions of the Land government. Because the Bundesrat is so much smaller than the Bundestag, it does not require the extensive organizational structure of the lower house. The Bundesrat typically schedules plenary sessions once a month for the purpose of voting on legislation prepared in committee.

In comparison, the Bundestag conducts about fifty plenary sessions a year. Bundesrat representatives rarely attend committee sessions; instead, they delegate that responsibility to civil servants from their ministries, as allowed for in the Basic Law. The members tend to spend most of their time in their Land capitals, rather than in the federal capital. The legislative authority of the Bundesrat is subordinate to that of the Bundestag, but the upper house nonetheless plays a vital legislative role. The federal government must present all legislative initiatives first to the Bundesrat; only thereafter can a proposal be passed to the Bundestag. Further, the Bundesrat must approve all legislation affecting policy areas for which the Basic Law grants the L�nder concurrent powers and for which the L�nder must administer federal regulations. The Bundesrat has increased its legislative responsibilities over time by successfully arguing for a broad, rather than a narrow, interpretation of what constitutes the range of legislation affecting Land interests. In 1949 only 10 percent of all federal laws, namely, those directly affecting the L�nder , required Bundesrat approval. In 1993 close to 60 percent of federal legislation required the upper house's assent.

The Basic Law also provides the Bundesrat with an absolute veto of such legislation. The political power of the absolute veto is particularly evident when the opposition party or parties in the Bundestag have a majority in the Bundesrat. When this is the case, the opposition can threaten the government's legislative program. Such a division of authority can complicate the process of governing when the major parties disagree, and, unlike the Bundestag, the Bundesrat cannot be dissolved under any circumstances. This bicameral system also has advantages. Some observers emphasize that different majorities in the two chambers ensure that all legislation, when approved, has the support of a broad political spectrum--a particularly valuable attribute in the aftermath of unification, when consensus on critical policy decisions is vital. The formal representation of the L�nder in the federal government through the upper chamber provides an obvious forum for the coordination of policy between the L�nder and the federal government. The need for such coordination, particularly given the specific, crucial needs of the eastern L�nder , has become only more important.

Question: What position represents the head of government in Germany?
Answer: Chancellor