Current News

Höhne/Hellmann_Die freien Demokraten

   |   by Matthias Koch

Benjamin Höhne and Daniel Hellmann analyze in a study the "new" FDP before the German Parliamentary Elections 2017. It is to expect that the liberals will be part of the German Bundestag again.

Publications

Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen, Issue 2/2017

   |   by Matthias Koch

In the latest issue of the "Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen" (ZParl) Anastasia Pyschny and Daniel Hellmann discuss the question under which conditions a constituency is safe for a party.

Publications

Koschmieder_Parteien, Parteiensysteme und politische Orientierungen

   |   by Matthias Koch

Dr. Benjamin Höhne analyses in an essay, published by Springer, the personnel management before the German Parliamentary Elections 2017.

Publications

Assembly of the Green Party in Augsburg (Picture: Claudia Illi)

   |   by Matthias Koch

If no candidate has a majority after the third vote, a decision will be made based on chance. For the Green Party in Bavaria, this came in the form of a coin-toss. In addition to this relatively rare spectacle, the party list convention in Augsburg on the 9th and 10th of December brought a few other surprises as well.

Vote of the SPD in constituency 80 (Picture: IParl)

   |   by Matthias Koch

Similar to four years ago, the SPD in the electoral district of Berlin-Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf has broadly involved their grassroots membership during the candidate selection. Five applicants threw their hats into the ring for the candidacy. Since the member consultation was inconclusive, the decision came down to a showdown at the party delegate conference.

Congratulations for the successful election (Picture: SPD Bitburg-Prüm)

   |   by Matthias Koch

Who didn’t report on the scandal: F.A.Z, Süddeutsche, Der Spiegel... the SWR tweeted: „Candidate casting for the #SPD Bitburg-Prüm”. The story was even featured on the nightly television news. For the three small district associations of the Social Democratic Party which share Parliamentary Constituency No. 203 „Bitburg” in Rhineland-Palatinate, the media’s response came as a surprise. How has the extraordinary search for a candidate gone?

Official Opening of the IParl (Picture: IParl)

   |   by Matthias Koch

„The quality of democracy in a state depends on the care afforded democracy by the political parties in that state”. Professor Dr. Suzanne S. Schüttemeyer officially opened the Institute for Parliamentary Research (IParl) with this quote from Ernst Fraenkel. Concurrently, she presented the inaugural IParl research project: „Who selects whom, how and why?”

First team briefing of the academic oberservers for the project on candidate selection for the German Parliamentary Elections of 2017 (Picture: IParl)

   |   by Matthias Koch

Twenty-five members of the project team – primarily research associates, doctoral and master students as well as alumni of the Halle Political Science programme – convened on the 23rd of September 2016 for a full-day conference, to familiarize themselves with the content of the project as well as to plan field research.

Representatives' assembly from DIE LINKE Rhineland-Palatinate in Kaiserslautern (Picture: IParl)

   |   by Matthias Koch

The middle of September 2016 marked the beginning of field research for IParl’s project on candidate selection. Eleven members of our project team took part in four party conventions in Brandenburg, North-Rhine Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony.