2. Introduction
Index
Major Parties
Federal Executive Branch
Federal Legislature
Judicial Branch
Recent Politics :-
1. Red Green Coalition
2. Christian Democrat
Comeback
3. Grand Coalition 2005 –
2009
4. CDU-CSU-FDP Coalition
of 2009 - Angela Merkel, Chancellor, Germany
3. Introduction
The Federal Republic of Germany is
a federal parliamentary republic,
based on representative democracy.
The Chancellor is the head of
government, while the President of
Germany is the head of state which
holds a ceremonial role but
substantial reserve powers. Executive
power is vested in the Federal
Cabinet and federal legislative
power is vested in the Bundestag
and the Bundesrat.
4. Major Parties
Christian Democratic Union
(CDU)
Christian Social Union (CSU)
Social Democratic Party
(SDP)
Free Democratic Party (FDP)
The Left
Alliance 1990 (The Greens)
7. Federal legislative power is divided between
the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.
The Bundestag is directly elected by the
German people, whilst the Bundesrat
represents the regional states. The federal
legislature has powers of exclusive jurisdiction
and concurrent jurisdiction with the states in
areas specifically enumerated by the
constitution. The Bundestag is more powerful
than the Bundesrat and only needs the
latter's consent for proposed legislation
related to revenue shared by the federal and
state governments, and the imposition of
responsibilities on the states.
9. Judicial Branch
The Judiciary in Germany is totally independent.
The organisation of courts is traditionally strong,
and almost all state actions are subject to judicial
review. Germany has a powerful Constitutional
Court. This is somewhat unique because the Basic
Law stipulates that every person may file a
complaint to that court when his or her
constitutional rights, especially human rights, have
been violated by the state and when he or she has
exhausted all stages of appeal in the regular court
system. 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.
12. Red Green Coalition
After 16 years of the Christian liberal coalition
of Helmut Kohl, the Social Democrats together
with the Greens won the elections of 1998. Initial
problems of the new government, marked by
policy disputes between the moderate and
traditional left wings of the SPD, resulted in some
voter disaffection. The CDU won in the first state
election after the federal election held in Hesse in
February 1999, but in other state elections of this
time, the respective SPD- or CDU-led coalition
governments were re-elected into power. The
popularity of the CDU dropped severely in 2000
when it became public that Kohl had accepted
high party donations. The next election date for
the Bundestag was September 22, 2002.
13. In its second term, the red green coalition lost
several very important state elections, for example
in Lower Saxony where Schröder was the prime
minister from 1990 to 1998. In 20 April 2003,
chancellor Schröder announced massive labour
market reforms, called Agenda 2010 including
cuts in unemployment benefits and subsidies for
unemployed persons who start their own
businesses etc. These reforms had sparked massive
protests they were credited with being in part
responsible for the economic downswing and the
rise of unemployment in Germany in the years
2006/07. This paved way for the return of
Christian Democrats.
14. On 22nd May 2005, CDU won the election
while SPD did not even receive 25% of the
total polls. The most likely outcome of the
coalition that had happened during the
2005 election was known as the ‘Grand
Coalition’ between the Christian Democrats
and the Social Democrats. On 22nd
November 2005, Angela Merkel swore in as
the Chancellor of Germany. She is the first
woman to become a Chancellor. Since 2008,
CSU lost its absolute power in Bavaria. In
2009 the Grand Coalition ended and new
elections came.
15. CDU/CSU and FDP together hold 332 seats
(of 622 total seats) and form a coalition
since 27 October 2009. The Green Party
(Grüne) and the Left Party (Die Linke)
both have all-time highs in their number
of seats, 68 and 76 respectively. The SPD
has the smallest number of seats since
1953. Angela Merkel was re-elected as
chancellor, Guido Westerwelle serves as
the Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor
of Germany.
