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Politics

Political structure

Germany’s political structure is based on that of post-war West Germany as defined by the constitution of 1949. It is a federal republic (with its seat in Berlin) divided into 16 states or Lander offering universal suffrage for all Germans over the age of 18.
The head of state is the president (currently Horst Koehler), elected once every five years by the Federal Assembly, or Bundestag (the lower house of parliament) and an equal number of representatives from state authorities. However, the de facto chief of the executive branch is the chancellor (presently Angela Merkel) who is elected by a majority vote in the Bundestag for a four-year term. The 614-seat Bundestag itself is elected by the people under a system which combines proportional representation with direct election. Parties must win 5% of the popular vote to be eligible for proportional presence in parliament, with members serving five-year terms.

Reaction to fascism

Post-war Germany turned its back on Germanic militarist and authoritarian history - no doubt in reaction to the tragic consequences of the Nazi era - and established itself as a largely social-democratic society with left-centrist tendencies. Government was invariably by coalition thanks to the electoral system, and this still holds true today: Chancellor Merkel’s centrist Christian Democratic Union holds only about a third of seats in the Bundestag. However, there has been a pronounced shift to the centre-right following years of Social-Democrat dominance and while Germany remains far more leftist than many other European countries, business interests and increasing pressure from the far right have pushed the country onto a more conservative path in recent years.

Liberal society

Largely as a reaction to fascism, Germany is an extremely liberal country society, with universal suffrage, freedom of the press and freedom of speech, as well as other human rights. These are all established in the constitution as well as in European Union legislation which, as is the case with all EU member-states, supersedes national law.

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