Voting in Germany for Dummies
Berlin voters can consider themselves lucky. In comparison to the voting results at the national level or in other Länder (German states), they pretty much got what they voted for in last weeks election. Although the talks between the winning SPD and its two favored possible coalition partners The Left Party (part of the current coalition government) and the Greens are still going on as of this writing, a coalition with either will fairly accurately reflect the will of the Berliner voter. And this is not selbstverständlich (understood, a given) in Germany anymore.
Unlike the American “winner-take-all” voting system, the German system of proportional representation has effectively institutionalized, well, the institution of coalition government (no, I am not implying that the American system is better). This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course, but strange things can happen in a system like this when people begin speaking and voting their minds.
Huh? Isn’t that what they’re supposed to do? Of course it is. But as chance would have it, voting your mind in Germany these days now leads to the formation of the very government(s) you were voting against (one tends to vote against things here). The smaller parties which German “rebels” (about 15% of the electorate) vote for now – these range from everything between senior citizen parties to the NPD - will never muster up enough votes or social acceptance (see NPD in Meckenburg-Vorpommern) to take part in an effective coalition government. These parties have to have received a minimum of 5% of the vote to be represented in the Bundesstag at all, and this is much harder than it sounds.
It’s all very paradoxical. Angela Merkel’s current grand coalition government was basically an accident. Her CDU (or the SPD, if you prefer) simply didn’t receive enough votes to be able to throw around its weight as it should. What is worse, it’s an on-going accident that has begun multiplying itself all around the country at the state government level, as well. This is primarily due to the fact that these so-called Volksparteien (the largest, “people’s” parties, SPD and CDU/CSU) have slowly but steadily been losing voters for years. And being that these traditional big parties are no longer big enough to form governments with their traditional smaller party partners (FDP, Greens), grand coalitions are by necessity forming which the voters don’t really want. That’s the first paradox.
The next paradox presents itself when these grand coalitions, despite all of the impressive parliamentary majorities at their disposal, or because of all of the impressive parliamentary majorities at their disposal (take your pick), prove themselves to be indecisive and afraid of the so-called großer Wurf (the big step, as in reform proposals). They are afraid to act because the coalition is too tenuous and there is no support for big reform within the German electorate (the real problem, but that's another story). They can’t change too much or the coalition falls apart and they will have no one left to blame but themselves. The current government would if it could but it can’t so it won’t, in other words. So they just patch up the existing system here and there as best they can and sit it out until the next election – which looks more and more like it could be announced any day now.
The most paradoxical element of all is the conclusion that results from all of this. If German voters want to get rid of these ineffective coalition monstrosities, they must stop being free-thinking rebels who vote their minds and begin voting for the large Volkspartien instead. They must vote for what they don’t want, in other words. Only then, when one or the other Volkspartei has received a large enough vote and finds a reliable partner to work with, might a government possibly be in the position to bring about real rebellious change - and push the blame for having had to do so upon the other Volkspartei no longer in power.
I don’t know about you, but I’m paradoxed out for now. But, then again, I don’t have to vote here, either.
Wer die Qual hat, muss zur Wahl.
Unlike the American “winner-take-all” voting system, the German system of proportional representation has effectively institutionalized, well, the institution of coalition government (no, I am not implying that the American system is better). This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course, but strange things can happen in a system like this when people begin speaking and voting their minds.
Huh? Isn’t that what they’re supposed to do? Of course it is. But as chance would have it, voting your mind in Germany these days now leads to the formation of the very government(s) you were voting against (one tends to vote against things here). The smaller parties which German “rebels” (about 15% of the electorate) vote for now – these range from everything between senior citizen parties to the NPD - will never muster up enough votes or social acceptance (see NPD in Meckenburg-Vorpommern) to take part in an effective coalition government. These parties have to have received a minimum of 5% of the vote to be represented in the Bundesstag at all, and this is much harder than it sounds.
It’s all very paradoxical. Angela Merkel’s current grand coalition government was basically an accident. Her CDU (or the SPD, if you prefer) simply didn’t receive enough votes to be able to throw around its weight as it should. What is worse, it’s an on-going accident that has begun multiplying itself all around the country at the state government level, as well. This is primarily due to the fact that these so-called Volksparteien (the largest, “people’s” parties, SPD and CDU/CSU) have slowly but steadily been losing voters for years. And being that these traditional big parties are no longer big enough to form governments with their traditional smaller party partners (FDP, Greens), grand coalitions are by necessity forming which the voters don’t really want. That’s the first paradox.
The next paradox presents itself when these grand coalitions, despite all of the impressive parliamentary majorities at their disposal, or because of all of the impressive parliamentary majorities at their disposal (take your pick), prove themselves to be indecisive and afraid of the so-called großer Wurf (the big step, as in reform proposals). They are afraid to act because the coalition is too tenuous and there is no support for big reform within the German electorate (the real problem, but that's another story). They can’t change too much or the coalition falls apart and they will have no one left to blame but themselves. The current government would if it could but it can’t so it won’t, in other words. So they just patch up the existing system here and there as best they can and sit it out until the next election – which looks more and more like it could be announced any day now.
The most paradoxical element of all is the conclusion that results from all of this. If German voters want to get rid of these ineffective coalition monstrosities, they must stop being free-thinking rebels who vote their minds and begin voting for the large Volkspartien instead. They must vote for what they don’t want, in other words. Only then, when one or the other Volkspartei has received a large enough vote and finds a reliable partner to work with, might a government possibly be in the position to bring about real rebellious change - and push the blame for having had to do so upon the other Volkspartei no longer in power.
I don’t know about you, but I’m paradoxed out for now. But, then again, I don’t have to vote here, either.
Wer die Qual hat, muss zur Wahl.
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