Parlamentarische Frageverfahren – Symbolpolitik oder wirksames Kontrollinstrument?

Siefken, Sven T.

doi:10.5771/0340-1758-2010-1-18

Cited by 12 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…We therefore consider them an appropriate measure for activities requiring more commitment than simple voting attendance, but less expertise than rapporteurships in committees. Written and oral parliamentary questions (in contrast to interpellations such as “Kleine” and “Grosse Anfragen”) are one of the few remaining tools of German parliamentarians to act individually in a parliament (Siefken ), which has strongly increased the powers of the party groups over individuals (Ismayr )…”

Section: Career Prospect and Expertise Impacting Legislative Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring, Maintaining, and Disengaging—The Three Phases of a Legislator's Life

Bailer

Ohmura

2017

Legislative Studies Qtrly

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Building on the understanding that a career is a dynamic concept, this article applies the idea that parliamentarians' legislative activities vary according to their career stage and age. This is partly a function of experience and partly a function of future career prospects. Using a new data set of the German Bundestag (2002-13) that pinpoints the age and career stage of MPs at the time of individual activities, namely, attending votes, posing parliamentary questions, and holding rapporteurships, we identify practical and normative challenges to MPs' legislative work: It takes time to learn the trade and as the desire for re-election dissipates, a last-period problem arises. MPs significantly reduce their activity levels toward the end of their legislative careers, indicating a clear loss of accountability toward their parties and their constituents.Parliamentarians want to perform well in order to get re-selected, re-elected, and promoted to higher positions. In this they are limited by institutional structures such as election systems and selection procedures, but also by their own career prospects, expertise, and individual talent. While we already have substantial knowledge of the impact of institutions on parliamentarians' performance such as voting, our knowledge is more limited with regard to how the individually variable resources of career prospects and expertise either constrain or enable parliamentarians. Investigating the role of career prospects and expertise and their impact on the behavior of parliamentarians furthers our understanding of what limits and what drives parliamentarians during their course of their parliamentary career paths. In this study, we compare legislative activities with professional employment where people begin careers, learn a trade, and become active and efficient workers over the course of those careers. Careers are the product of rational, individual calculations (Daniel 2015), and including career prospects in an analysis of MPs' legislative activity improves our understanding of legislators' accountability toward their party and voters.

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Section: Career Prospect and Expertise Impacting Legislative Activitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring, Maintaining, and Disengaging—The Three Phases of a Legislator's Life

Bailer

Ohmura

2017

Legislative Studies Qtrly

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“…Among the numerous instruments the Bundestag has at its disposal is that members and parliamentary groups may force the executive to provide information and answer questions. Basically, there are four different ways of inquiring (see Siefken , 21).…”

Section: Theory and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the case of MIs, no debate takes place, but the provision of an answer—which is available publicly—is mandatory which makes the instrument quite sharp. Also, the qualification as minor is rather misleading since MIs usually consist of multiple, sometimes up to a few hundred, questions (Siefken , 23).…”

Section: Theory and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although conventional wisdom regarded MIs mainly as a technical means of control and oversight (see Eschenburg as cited in Siefken , 27), newer work has shown that this is only part of the story. To a considerable extent, members also use MIs as instruments of agenda setting, to promote their standing in the party and to show activity to their constituency (Kepplinger ).…”

Section: Theory and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hierarchical, Decentralized, or Something Else? Opposition Networks in the German Bundestag

Metz

Jäckle

2016

Legislative Studies Qtrly

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Members of the German parliament may force government to publicly answer questions by issuing minor interpellations (kleine Anfragen). We use 3,608 interpellations from the session 2009–13 that have been signed by authoring and supporting members to construct the social network of support relations among members within the three opposition parties. We find that parties differ markedly in terms of internal structure. While social democrats organize hierarchically, Greens cooperate horizontally. The network for socialist Linke in contrast shows signs of homophily and social segregation. Our approach yields a novel perspective on intraparty politics in parliamentary systems which are notoriously difficult to analyze.

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“…1). Dabei bestätigt sich, dass Wachstum insbesondere im Herz der Gesetzgebung, also in den Ausschussempfehlungen, kaum eine Rolle spielt, und dass es auch in den die Regierung über den Einbezug von fachöffentlichen Galerien kontrollierenden Kleinen Anfragen(Siefken 2010) nicht unbedingt übermäßig präsent ist. Bereits an den Worthäufigkeiten gerade der Berichte und Beschlussempfehlungen der Ausschüsse etwa sieht man, dass sehr konkrete Aspekte der gegenwärtigen Wirtschafts-und Energiepolitik gegenüber der Reflexion auf Konzepte und Werte dominieren ("Strom" wird 1201 Mal genannt, das EEG 607 Mal, Wachstum hingegen nur 21, Innovation 16 Mal).…”

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Dogma, not Debate. Economic Growth in Parliamentary Discourse

Rivera

Zucher

2018

Polit Vierteljahresschr

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Zusammenfassung Wirtschaftswachstum ist als Politikziel zwar gesellschaftlicher Konsens, wird aber auch immer wieder infrage gestellt. Argumente gegen dieses Ziel sind durch die Enquete des 17. Deutschen Bundestages nachvollzogen worden. Ein entsprechender Lerneffekt aber lässt sich auf der Ebene öffentlich sichtbaren parlamentarischen Sprachhandelns nicht beobachten, wie unsere Inhaltsanalyse von 120 offiziellen Dokumenten der 18. Legislaturperiode zeigt. Der von den regierenden Parteien geprägte Diskurs ist eigentümlich randständig (ornamental) und frei von Argumentationen (dogmatisch). Es gibt keine Debatte zum Thema. Dies ist nicht hinreichend durch kommunikative Strategien oder Positionen erklärbar, sondern deutet auf den Effekt eines historisch verfestigten Diskurses. Die Frage stellt sich, inwiefern auch andere nicht-tagesaktuelle Grundsatzfragen im Parlament marginalisiert werden. Methodisch ist für die politische Diskursanalyse außerdem generell das Verhältnis von Zweck und Mittel bei der Aussagenbildung von Interesse.Abstract Economic growth as a policy objective remains consensual, but not unchallenged. The enquiry committee set up during the German Bundestag's 17th electoral period has reproduced some of the arguments against said objective. Via con-M. Rivera ( ) Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS),

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Parlamentarische Frageverfahren – Symbolpolitik oder wirksames Kontrollinstrument?

Cited by 12 publications

References 3 publications

Exploring, Maintaining, and Disengaging—The Three Phases of a Legislator's Life

Exploring, Maintaining, and Disengaging—The Three Phases of a Legislator's Life

Hierarchical, Decentralized, or Something Else? Opposition Networks in the German Bundestag

Dogma, not Debate. Economic Growth in Parliamentary Discourse

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