News

Why do MPs in some countries address their questions to the Prime Minister rather than the relevant minister? In the Hansard Society's 'Parliament Matters' podcast, Dr Ruxandra Serban (UCL) talks about her joint research with Calixte Bloquet on the French National Assembly's experiments with questions to the Prime Minister, as well as her work on Canada, Australia, Ireland and the UK.

Together with Amal Sethi (University of Leicester) and Michael Riegner (University of Erfurt), Danny Schindler has published a special issue of the journal Verfassung und Recht in Übersee/World Comparative Law (Open Access) on the topic of "Public Law and Opposition". With contributions on China, Morocco, Pakistan and South Africa, among others, the volume sheds light on how legal regulations influence the opposition's opportunities for participation.

In the 18th IParl-Blickpunkt, Oliver Kannenberg analyses which committees in the German Bundestag make the (pre-)selection of Bundestag presidents and which criteria have been taken into account more or less over time.

Danny Schindler's study discusses possible reasons for the constitutionalisation of parliamentary minority rights and the conceptual and empirical variations in oppositional participation.

In the series "Reflecting on Democracy", the citizens' association Demokratieort Paulskirche e.V. will address the question: What kind of personnel for our democracy? In the panel discussion, Danny Schindler will debate this with Volker Rissing (Head of the "Berliner Republik" department of Cicero magazine) and Bettina M. Wiesmann (former Member of the Bundestag and Member of the State Parliament in Hesse).

The Speaker of the House of Representatives plays a key role in the US political system. In the 118th Congress (2023-2025), Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy was the first Speaker to be removed by an internal party vote of no confidence. In his article, Alexander Kühne analyses the events surrounding the removal and explores the question of whether Donald Trump's strong influence amounts to an "executive takeover".

Is Julia Klöckner rightly criticised as Bundestag president? Danny Schindler spoke to t-online about the need for robust and impartial leadership in order to conduct heated debates without restricting the parliamentary debate.

In their article, Franziska Carstensen and Suzanne S. Schüttemeyer emphasise that the Berlin House of Representatives is an extremely active state parliament. As a result of the recent reforms, it has developed into a professionalised full-time parliament, which is, however, facing representation challenges in the face of increased popular legislation procedures.

Does decision-making in parliamentary groups follow democratic standards? Oliver Kannenberg and Danny Schindler have investigated this question in an anthology on the Berlin House of Representatives.

How resilient is liberal democracy? This question was the focus of a roundtable on democratic politics organised by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Progressive Centre. Danny Schindler spoke on the ability of parliaments to act.

How do local councillors define their political role - between citizen dialogue, administrative logic and digital participation approaches? The article by Kevin W. Settles and Nadin Fromm et al. in ZParl offers empirically sound insights and discusses challenges and reform perspectives.

Lots instead of elections? The idea of drawing lots rather than electing decision-makers is not new - but it has been gaining attention in recent years. How exactly do citizens' assemblies work? What are their strengths - and their weaknesses? We discussed these and other questions in a double episode with Frank Decker from the University of Bonn and Florian Wiezcorek from Mehr Demokratie e.V. in order to approach these questions from both an academic and a civil society perspective.

In the second part of the double episode on citizens' assemblies, we look at the practical implementation and the civil society perspective. With Florian Wiezcorek from Mehr Demokratie e.V., we discuss the possibilities of the format and previous experiences with citizens' assemblies.

When filling ministerial posts within the party, attention is paid to a variety of points: Gender, regional origin or wing affiliation. Nevertheless, this does not stand in contrast to the necessary expertise, as Oliver Kannenberg explains in an interview with ARD Brisant.

Coalition collapse, new elections, Chancellor Merz. Danny Schindler spoke to US magazine The Nation about how the new coalition government came into office and the challenges it faces.

Due to the early election of the German Bundestag, intra-party candidate selection also needed to be held earlier than planned. As Anastasia Pyschny, Maura Kratz and Sebastian Unsicker point out in the 17th IParl-Blickpunkt, this had consequences for the process of nominating candidates. In almost all parties, procedural changes were necessary in the internal party nomination process.

Is it time for a more ambitious democracy policy and, if so, what could it look like? This was the key question of the Bertelsmann Roundtable with representatives from politics, administration, civil society and academia. Danny Schindler represented the IParl.

Communication is both a key task and a complex challenge for political parties. Danny Schindler spoke to the ZDF programme "Berlin direkt" about the tension between election campaign rhetoric and finding compromises in coalition negotiations.