Germany: Varieties of Democracy in a Federal System

Abstract

This article discusses the patterns of subnational democracy within the context of German federalism and local government. The first section discusses the distinctive institutional expression of democracy and the evolution of state in Germany. The second section focuses on the interplay and the relationship between federalism and the political organization of society. This structural framework elucidates on the mechanisms of subnational democracy, in German Länder, and at the local level. The last section of this article collates the changes in society and state and their implications on the subnational democracy of Germany.

Topic Coverage of Coalition Agreements in Multi-Level Settings: The Case of Germany

“…Yet, due to the great extent of joint decision-making authorities in the multi-level system of Germany because of the concurrent legislation by the federal and state level and the fact that 'policy issues often transcend the territorial boarders of Länder jurisdictions' (Kropp and Behnke, 2016, 675), the state and local administrations' role as executing authority for implementing these laws (Benz and Zimmer, 2011), and the federal-state nexus regarding shared taxes (Benz and Sonnicksen, 2017), we also expect that both national and regional, as well as local coalition agreements to some extent also address policy fields that are not in their exclusive realm of policymaking. There are at least four reasons to expect this.…”

“…8 Note that the institutional setting at the German local level with a directly elected mayor and a local council is a neither a pure presidential nor a pure parliamentarian system (Bäck, 2005;Egner 2015) but rather a 'mixed democracy' (Gross and Debus, 2018a) or 'institutional hybrid' (Egner, 2015) between a 'quasi-presidential' (Benz and Zimmer, 2011;Egner and Stoiber, 2008) or a 'semi-presidential' (Debus and Gross, 2016;Bäck, 2005) government system, depending on which German state authors are primarily basing their analysis on. This does not change, however, the equivalence of local coalition agreements to coalition agreements at the federal and state level because local government parties can still shape policy-making and portfolio allocation at the local level, even if the directly elected mayor is from an opposing party.…”

Top‐down and Bottom‐up: Institutional Effects on Debt and Grants at the English and German Local Level

“…Systematic research on interest representation at the level of the German states is very limited (see Benz and Zimmer ). That said, there are three reasons why the German local level is likely to possess more intergovernmental negotiating authority compared to the English local level.…”

The coordination of digital government platforms: the role of administrative tradition and collaboration history

“…The Continental tradition is characterised by a strong legal basis for governance and as interventionist in their approach to society as well as a strong hierarchical governance approach (Meyer and Hammerschmid, 2010). They also have a clear separation of federal and regional powers, characterised by a strong adherence to the principle of subsidiarity (Benz and Zimmerman, 2011). Finally, the Scandinavian traditions appear to be a mix of both Anglo-Saxon and continental approaches.…”