Untersuchungsdesign

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The German Federal Electoral SystemHermann
SchmittMZES, UniversityD-68131
Mannheimhschmitt_at_mzes.uni-mannheim.de
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Four steps

• the political background

• the system as such

• macro-consequences

• micro-consequences

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1. The background
1.1. The collapse of the Weimar Republic which
was attributed, among other things, to the
fragmentation of its party system, to ideological
polarisation, and centrifugal party competition.
1.2. After WW2, the new electoral system aimed at
contributing to party system concentration,
centripetal party competition, and agreement on
fundamentals among the competing parties.
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2. The system as such
2.1. A mixed member proportional electoral system
(personalisierte Verhältniswahl) was chosen.
2.2. It combines the local representation of a
first-past-the- post electoral system with the
proportional representation list system.
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2.3. Each voter has two votes, one for choosing
between constituency candidates, and one for
choosing between (the state lists of) federal
parties.
2.4. About 300 of 600 MPs are directly elected
constituency representatives, the other 300 are
elected via party lists.
2.5. The nationwide share of second votes
(list votes) of a party determines the share of
seats that it can fill.
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2.6. Candidate/seat allocation is done at state
level. Directly elected candidates of a party go
first and are supplemented by (not directly
elected) list candidates until every allocated
seat is filled.
2.7. If there are more directly elected
candidates than allocates mandates (at state
level), these surplus mandates of a party are
retained. This causes less than perfect
proportionality and varying overall numbers of
Bundestag members.
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2.6. There is a threshold of representation
applied which is set at 5 (nationwide) of valid
second votes.
2.7. A party which obtains less list votes than 5
, but wins three or more mandates directly, is
also represented in the Bundestag.
2.8. Systematically speaking, the German MMP
electoral system is a proportional system and
as such not so different from that of the Weimar
Republic.
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3. Macro consequences
3.1. Party system concentration? Yes, the 5
quorum in particular has been effective, but
other factors like the structure of social
cleavages and early economic growth
(Wirtschaftswunder) have also contributed.
3.2. Moderation of party competition? The effect
of the constitutional court (ban on extremist
parties) and the limits on party elite strategies
in a federal system were perhaps more important.
3.3. Higher turnout? Yes, but partisanship and
close races too contribute heavily to turnout.
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4. Micro consequences
4.1. Split-ticket voting (coalition voting) is
possible and increasing over time (from 7 in
1961 to 25 in 2002).
4.2. Among representatives, the focus of
representation (agenda vs position) co-varies
modestly with type of mandate (constituency vs
list).
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5. An often neglected cause of succes
5.1. In most constituencies, the two major
parties have been present with one MP each (one
direct-ly, the other list-elected). If the
Germany federal electoral systems contributed to
party system concentration and stabilisation, it
is not least due to this.
5.2. A FPTP system would probably not have
produced this outcome, but rather contributed to
continuing party system fragmentation.