German MPs Research Articles

Are Female Legislators Different? Exploring Sex Differences in German MPs' Outside Interests

This is the authors’ accepted, refereed and final manuscript to the article. LOCKED until 2015-01-01 due to copyright restrictions

Does Personality Matter in Politics? Personality Factors as Determinants of Parliamentary Recruitment and Policy Preferences

Abstract This article inquires into the impact of personality factors on the selection and self-selection of parliamentary elites. I compare personality profiles of German MPs and the German population obtained through survey research, and for some comparisons I utilize elite and mass samples matched for education, gender, and age. I ask further if MPs’ personalities have an impact on their preferences for expansionist or restricted government budgets and welfare state benefits, the extension or limitation of civic rights, and several other policies. Party affiliations of MPs are used as a control variable. I find that MPs’ personality traits differ strikingly from those of the German population and from those of followers in most of the parties with which MPs are affiliated.

German Parliamentary Party Groups in Europeanised Policymaking: Awakening from the Sleep? Institutions and Heuristics as MPs’ Resources

As a contribution to the ‘de-parliamentarisation’ debate, this article discusses the Europeanisation of the Bundestag by focusing on parliamentary party groups and their policy experts. In the German ‘working parliament’, these units are focal points for coordinating policymaking. By adding the explanatory power of ‘belief systems’ and, more generally, of ‘heuristics’ to theories of new institutionalism, this explanatory study reveals that although new institutionalism frameworks have served as rather good guidelines for explaining why German MPs have backed off scrutinising the government and co-governing in EU policymaking, they can be further improved by explicitly integrating elements of cognitive theory. The study empirically draws on elite interviews with MPs and their staff. These interviews offer insights into heuristics which serve to diminish information overload and which help MPs to cope with trade-offs and conflicts between EU issues and programmatic positions that point back to national party affiliations.

The Constituency Roles of MPs at the Federal and Länder Levels in Germany

Germany has both a federal system of government and mixed member proportional (MMP) electoral systems at both federal and Länder levels. The paper explains how most patterns in the constituency work of German MPs at both levels are functions of the electoral systems employed, party competition and tactical considerations. District MPs have significant commitments to constituency work; overall list MPs do as well, though to a lesser extent. The article defines three types of list MP, between which there are variations in both the volume of constituency work undertaken and engagement with individual constituents or group interests. Relationships between members are strongly related to partisan contests, although the overall legitimacy of both federal and electoral systems means there is no dispute over the rules governing the rights of different types of member in constituency work.

Role Perceptions, Party Cohesion and Political Attitudes of East and West German Parliamentarians. Findings from the Jena Parliamentary Survey (2003-4)

This article deals with similarities and differences in the orientations of East and West German MPs more than a decade after the unification of the coun- try. Based on data from the Jena Parliamentary Survey, thus far the largest sur- vey among German parliamentarians, carried out in 2003-4, the paper discusses three hypotheses. While differences between deputies from the East and the West are found to be significant for some dimensions, they are, in general, sub- ordinate to if not derived from the inter-factional differences induced by party competition. In spite of this evident impact of partisanship, German parliamen- tary parties exhibit unexpectedly low levels of party discipline / party unity in their attitudes towards the party and policy preferences. This phenomenon is slightly more pronounced in East Germany than in the West. Viewed against the background of parties as monopolists in the recruitment process and the reward schemes for MPs, this represents the most surprising finding from the survey. Sociologický casopis/Czech Sociological Review, 2005, Vol. 41, No. 3: 375-399

German MPs and ICT

This article represents the German part of the European COST A 14 study. As the results clearly differ in some respect from the European mainstream, a short introduction is given into the special situation of the national parliament. We found that there were problems integrating the German experience into the European framework: the results sometimes fit the general tendencies; in other respects they offer a quite unique picture. Questions of compatibility arise that go back to the general methodology of the study (see the introductory chapter in this issue). To utilize the data from Germany, it is probably best to take them as an example of a large Western European parliament that is only partially compatible to the smaller parliaments that stand in the centre of the approach used in the COST A 14 studies.

The Transformation of Legislative Elites: The Cases of Britain and Germany since the 1860s

Drawing on databases going back to the middle of the nineteenth century, this article examines how changes in the opportunity structures in political recruitment have influenced the socio-economic backgrounds and career patterns of British and German MPs. Extending opportunity structures enables legislatures to respond to socio-economic changes in society, but there may be a significant time-lag before they are reflected in the legislature. In spite of significant differences in their political history, there has been a convergence of socio-economic backgrounds and career patterns, driven largely by changes in the opportunity structures, which, particularly in the German case, preceded the full impact of changes in political culture. This convergence does not preclude significant differences, but these are principally the product of particular factors, such as party and electoral systems, and changes do not necessarily occur simultaneously, but the tendency towards similar educational and occupational backgrounds and similar career patterns remains.

German MPs and their roles

Parliamentary role structures do not come into being as a consequence of the MPs’ behavioural preferences alone. In the German case, five constructive features constitute the casting mould within which the roles of MPs are formed: ‘team formation effects’ of the parliamentary system of government; professionalisation and division of labour within a ‘work parliament'; the fact that German MPs are, and hence behave as, party leaders; and role‐shaping effects both of interest groups and of constituency work. Based on a survey conducted in 1994 among all 2,800 German MPs, and on a return rate of about a third, the effects thereof are described. Subsequently, the ‘role partners’ or ‘counter roles’ of German parliamentarians are presented, and data on role orientations, role behaviour, role conflicts and parliamentary socialisation are discussed. Role orientations and role behaviour of German representatives are clearly correlated, and both match quite well the functional logic of representative democracy. On balance it may be stated that the average German MP is doing a good job.