tbh, a two party system ain't that much better than a one party system, if not even worse. In a one party system you don't have much power but they get stuff done, in a two party system you still don't have much power AND they doen't get stuff done as they usually backtrack on what the other party did, so they stagnate.
Agree on that. As a European it seems weird to just have two Partys. How could they reflect the whole political spectrum of diffrent interests? But the US has its own political culture. You gotta give it to them, they're still the longest lasting democracy which holds power to the current day.
@@fusssel7178 You're basically advocating for autocracy or monarchy. NO THANK YOU! I'd rather have the power of the gov. segmented into parties and different ideologies that we get to vote on rather than having a one party rule with a dictator.
@@kvtvlinn They only said one or two-party systems are bad, that leaves three or more like in Germany, so I don't think he was arguing for what you think.
German here, I think the two most important differences from the US are: -Since the Chancellor is voted for by the Bundestag this insures that the government has their support. This means it is very hard to end up in a situation where the executive and the legislative are trying to block each other as often happens in the US after the midterm. In fact if a Chancellor manages to loose the support of the Bundestag he is expected to step down and can be replaced by a vote in the Bundestag even if he doesn't. -The fact that the parties have to form coalitions in order to get anything done means that the parties need to remain somewhat cordial with each other. After all there is no guarantee that your current coalition partner(s) might not loose a lot of seats in the next election which would mean that you need to find (a) new or additional partner(s) to remain part of the government. This means any party which wants to succeed in Germany has to be able to cooperate with most of the other major parties. This prevents a climate of mutual hatred like in the US and prevents German politics from polarizing the German society too much.
Espacially as a German, I love your videos. It cures my soul, seing sommeone - espeacially an american - handling political topics so well with such a high amount of self-reflection. In Europe we tend to just see the radical polarised, trumpish, poitically weird side of america, which leads us to feel as we would be "something better" because yet non of our parliaments have been stormed. But your videos proove, that indeed there are lots of sensefull people in the US and that we do have a lot in common. With these kind of Videos, you're contributing to bringing Europe and America closer together. Keep going!
The video is a little older. Angela Merkel is no longer Chancellor and the coalition that now governs consists of the SPD, the FDP and the Greens. The current chancellor's name is Olaf Scholz and he is a social democrat. Angela Merkel's party, the CDU, is now in opposition.
This actually has a ton of minor mistakes. E.g. it says "a party needs a least 5% of the popular vote to get a seat in government", when he should have said "parliament". There are exceptions to that rule, but this doesn't matter. What indeed matters, is the misuse of "government" instead of "parliament". Also: A coalition is not formed to pass certain legislation, as the video said. A coalition is required to form a government. In order to appoint a chancellor (who will then appoint the rest of the government), you need an overall majority in parliament. If you want to have a look at a really strange and unique political system, you should have a look at Switzerland. There's a very good (and, if I remember right, factually accurate) video on the "VisualPolitik EN" channel about it.
You're right, you don't have a direct vote in who is appointed in what position. But every major party has a chancellor candidate that is known and advertised. So you do know who the most important position goes to if your party gets the most votes and they manage to form a coalition. Other major posts, the ministers of certain resorts like finance, infrastructure or education, are usually a major part of the coalition negotiations between the parties. So you vote for the party program you prefer. There are also tons of smaller parties that usually don't cross the 5% hurdle. For example the pirate party which got close with a program around internet freedom, personal data security and general digital reform of the government. Sometimes there are parties formed around one singular issue so if that issue is the only thing you care about you might try voting for those. Finally the direct mandate is a way to get someone specific to a position where he/she can at least raise issues and take part in discussions. Here is where it's easiest for smaller parties to get seats by campaigning hard in one district around getting one person in to represent their point of view. That one voice is not that big of a deal so more people are willing to give it to smaller parties.
It might also be important to emphasise that at the end the members of the federal parliament or the state parliaments on the state level hold the power. It’s not like you have a chancellor and hope for the best. The chancellor needs the approval of a majority of the parliament.
The single seat constituencies part of the MMP electoral system you guys have actually is a disadvantage for smaller parties. You guys only have 7 parties (okay *technically* 8 due to the CDU/CSU split) But due to your system you rarely have more then 2 parties actually forming a coalition. By contrast here in Norway we only have 169 seats in our parliament (compared to your gigantic one) yet we had 10 parties represented in the last election and our coalitions frequently is made up of 3-4 parties. The smallest party in our parliament had less then 5 000 voters but was still from a multi member constituency (we have 19 of them) I believe they where the third biggest party in one of our lowest population density electoral circles, so more seats pr voters then most other parts of our country) Yet our system has more proportionality then your system at both a regional and national level. Our smallest party this term got their seat due to a hospital closing in northern Norway leaving half of that constituency without a hospital when there's bad weather as the other two hospitals in that constituency requires passing mountains that's unpassable in bad weather both on the road and in the air. At a national level they had just 0,3% of the votes. But we also had 3 political parties just short of 4% and one just above. (Only 19 of the 169 seats have a electoral threshold at all, for those 19 seats that threshold is 4% giving a incentive for smaller parties to merge or at least not split up without discouraging bigger ones from splitting up since having more or less then 4% can make the difference between making it into a coalition or not) And for parties with a spread voter base it may make a big difference in the number of seats as those 19 seats are leveling seats. In our system you can reorder or even add/remove people from a party list. So if you vote for say the labour party but want to support a Cristian peoples party representative you can add someone from their list to the labour party list while removing someone from *their* list as a example. And people can be represented on multiple party lists by default. So our system is fairly flexible in that regard.
@@Luredreier We had such a fractured parliament in the 1920s and 30s, a parliament that got nothing done because to many different factions had to somehow made work together. For that reason we have that 5% (or alternatively 3 direct seats) threshold for parties. To prevent too much splintering. Also don't forget the SSW, as party representing a national minority they don't need to hit either threshold. They just need enough votes to
Although this voting system has sometimes been called too anonymous because you indeed do only half the voting for a person (the First Vote - Erststimme) it still means that you can expect some amount of continuity because usually program goes before person. It's not as vulnerable to wannabe heroes like in the US because it's not about "The winner takes it all" but about equal representation of political opinions. Through all the shortcomings of our system I still think it's one of the better ones. Well, at least we know how to count ballots 😁
It would even be possible to do MMP with a single vote. Still doing the whole "half and half" system, but not disregarding the "losing" votes on the FPTP half.
This is not only Germany. Mos european countries have similar constitutions; many parties and government formation through coalition are common in all Europe.
This is similar to the parliamentary systems in most European countries. The main political leader (the Prime Minister, or the Chancellor in Germany) is the one who has the support of the majority of Members of Parliament in the parliament/Congress.
During the Campaigning for the elections, the Parties often present their Candidate who they want to put up as Chancellor, so though the Voters don't directly vote the Chancellor, they know more or less, who would become chancellor, when they gave their vote to a certain Party. The whole government structure is made in that complicated way to split up power, that it is almost impossible for one Person or one Party to gain absolute power over Legislature, Justice and Executive, so a third Reich can't repeat itself.
The video is a bit older since October 26, 2021 , Bärbel Bas has been President of the Bundestag fom the SPD and no longer Wolfgang Schäuble from the CDU.🙂
The voting system is relatively complicated especially if you consider the different local voting rights. That's the reason that each German school kid learns for approximately one year in school how the system works. In the election we vote for parties that clearly stated whom they will chooses their chancellor. After an election normally the biggest party tires to form a coalition but they are not always successful. At the moment we have a coalition of three smaller parties leaving out the biggest. A major difference in our system is in my eyes that we don't have a President that can rule with orders bypassing the parliament. Additionally in our Federal Council the seats are given to the states based on their distribution of population and not the stupid each state has two seats so that votes in small states have 300 times the value of a vote in a bigger state (If I got the population figures of Wyoming and California correct.) All this measures insure that each government has the support of more than 50% of the voters and not that one guy who has millions of votes less that the other can run a country with very limited restrictions even if he has millions of votes less than the so called loser.
"At the moment we have a coalition of three smaller parties leaving out the biggest" Not realy right, the SPD who is apointing the chancellor at the moment is the biggest party in the parliament at the moment
In the United States, the president is not directly elected. Voters elect electors, who then elect the president. Here, too, the voter must trust that the elector will follow the wishes of the voters. In Germany, the chancellor is elected by parliament. This is calculated as a percentage of voters' votes. So the party with the most seats also has the most voting power. In this respect, the chancellor candidate of this party will very likely prevail. In addition, the German Chancellor does not have as many rights as the President in the USA. Without the consent of Parliament, the Chancellor has no rights. In the US, the President can overrule or veto Parliament.
The advantage of a Coalitions is, that parties are 'forced' to work TOGETHER instead of, as in the USA, where to parties constantly seems to be fighting each other.
Well, think of it this way. In germany we vote for a person and a party. Let's say we like trump but want to vote the left, we can actually do that. So you have a list with, lets say 50 people per party and the more people in the country like one candidate of one party, the higher he/she/it is on that party's list. Let's go back to trump; he is the most liked person of the people voting party A and Obama is the most liked of party B. Both party's get elected to represent the people of 'Imagineland' with party A having 35% of all votes, party B having 31%, party C having 19% and some more. To be able to pass legislation you have to have a majority in your goverment. Party A and Party C build this new goverment with over 50% majority and as the most liked person of the most liked party, that being party A, Trump would get recommended to be the chancellor of the new goverment. The person to appoint the chancellor is the president of state which is also originally from one party, let's say party B. Meaning you can have Obama as president representing your country and at the same time trump, if he is also the most liked person of the new goverment to reprent it, to lead the country. That's also why you cannot be in a party and have a postion in goverment if you want to be the president, because an angry mustage man came along and messed that up once in the past. I hope you or whoever reads this learned from this or correct or add to it, if he knows more than this little electrician here.
In Germany each party nominates their candidate for chancellor. When you vote for a party you at the same time vote for their main candidate Certainly the system is not perfect, but better than the 1 party elections in china or Russia. Also the 2 party system in the USA is not ideal, especially as not the majority of the votes counts to elect a president, Israel has a different system, where also the smallest parties can get in power. The results you ( or shall I name it desaster ) you can see in their last governments
@@Michael_from_EU_Germany 1) agree and accept, smaller parties don’t nominate a candidate for chancellor in Germany 2) yes, but these small parties have never a chance due to the American voting system ( as far I as know and see )
@@Michael_from_EU_Germany Even if there are more than only 2 parties to choose from, the system of "the winner takes it all" encourages you to only consider those who actually stand a chance to win the majority. That's also the reason why you might give your first vote (Erststimme) in Germany to "the lesser of the two evils" rather than to the representative of your "favorite" party, while you might give your second vote (Zweitstimme) to a smaller party even if it's "only" about whether they will ever win at least 5% of the votes and make it to the parliament at all (which could affect the possible coalitions). If it was only about the one party winning the majority in the first place, then smaller parties never get a chance to grow.
Although there are names on the ballot, you can not vote directly for someone to become president, chancellor or whatever. That is, for one, due to the representational system, but this is also by design. When the BRD was formed after war, the people im charge of designing the new constitution were very aware of the issues stemming form a singular lynchpin in the system. So they removed those singular powerful positions. As a result the parties define a doctrine of their goals to chase in case they got to power and, usually the 2-3 most powerful parties, will also assign a candidate for the position of the chancellor. So basically one has a somewhat idea on who's going to be chancellor. But since the position of the chancellor is more like the one of the ruling party's foreman, it's the outcome of the postelection negotiations about forming a coalition that will define the upcoming ruling instead of just the president's/chancellor's agenda.
Take Lord of the Rings tv show, one corrupts, two divide, three is balance. Or more than three, unless you do it the Italian way and turn Parliament into a mad house👍
In System with more than 2 parties, there is no guarantee that one will have the majority, hence voting for a president/chancellor directly would be useless. Instead we vote for those who plan on doing things in our interest, which includes deciding for the chancellor in their coalition.
Coalition governments are actually the rule in countries with electoral systems based on a proportional representation system. The plus side is you do get a government with representatives if a majority of voters. The down side is that you get a government programme that no one voted for. That's because all the negotiations about policy and who gets which job happen after voters have voted. You might back a party because you like particular policies, but they might be the ones dropped in negotiations to do a deal on other policies.
In a simplified way: (1) You vote for a party. Based on the percentages of votes each party gets, they get a proportional number of seats in the Federal Diet (Bundestag). (2) Through negotiations between the parties, a group of parties which together have an absolute majority of the seats in parliament emerges, the coalition. (3) Once the parties forming the coalition have agreed on a set of common goals, the chancellor (like the British Prime Minister) is elected by parliament. (4) Until the next election, this majority of members of parliament then also passes all laws and other matter that the coalition had agreed upon at the beginning plus of course anything new that comes up that requires changes to laws. So far, the same two parties (CDU & SPD) have always been the two largest parties in all federal elections. And their dominance has been such, that you could never assemble a majority in parliament that didn’t include at least one of them. It has also been a convention that the ‘head’ of the largest party in the coalition becomes the chancellor. Meaning also that the ‘head’ of one these two parties eventually became chancellor. Together with the knowledge which parties are most likely to join together, you sort of knew which party (or parties) you had to give your vote if you wanted to have either the ‘head’ of the SPD or the ‘head’ of the CDU to become chancellor. But as the number of parties that got seats in parliament has increased over time, predicting which parties would join to form a coalition has become more difficult. It gets also a bit more complicated in that some laws also require a majority in the second chamber, the Bundesrat. As mentioned in the video, the latter is similar to the American Senate except that its members are appointed by the equivalent of the state governors and essentially are instructed by their respective ‘governor’ how to vote. And since the ‘governors’ are elected themselves by state legislatures with their own coalitions, getting a law through both chambers can involve a lot of negotiation between many parties and politicians. In the end this requires a lot of compromise. First within the coalition at the federal level and secondly with the members of enough state governments.
Basically we vote for Parties for the Parliament and let them figure out, who will be running our goverment. It just means, we vote rather for platforms and programs than for persons. A system I personally like better, as our votes are more issue driven than charisma driven. Which doesn't mean of course, that a charismatic leader can't influence how his party does.
@@Michael_from_EU_Germany Ok, true, we have a mixed vote. But mainly the first vote doesn't matter as much as the party vote, as you equalize if one party gets to many direct mandates by giving the other parties more seats. So we still don't really vote for people. Something I like actually. It is never a good idea to give more emphasis on people than on platforms. The issues and the solutions, is what matters.
The coalition of CDU/CSU + SPD was from 2017 to 2021. There was also an attempt in 2017 to form a coalition of SPD + Die Günen + FDP, and unfortunately the parties did not agree for weeks to set out their goals in a coalition agreement. In the end, the FDP withdrew from the negotiations and announced this with the meanwhile legendary words, "Better not to govern than to govern badly". The GroKo (grand coalition) of the CDU and SPD was then formed. A coalition of the two "Volksparteien"/mainstream parties (representing the broadest spectrum of voters) is not considered very progressive and represents a policy of stagnation.
Imagine how government would be like in the USA if you just had Congress and the Senate but no President. The leader of the government would be the leader of the majority party in Congress.
Stefan from Dortmund, Germany again: it works so far. It's the most dominating System in European States ... EXCEPT Great Britain. But this is the fact why you didn't understand at your first view ... BUT "America" got the same system by their former "landlords" ... Of course "Europe" [as a continent which isn't] got nothing to do with the "European Union" as itself. Take a look on Russia as the biggest nation [most inhabitants]: they are bombing another european country called Ukraina ... bot both of them get nothing to do with the European Community ... It all may look very absurd to you ... BUT you are giving your personal vote to ONE of many political parties. Afterwards the new government will start soon ... tge ability to vote only ONE of TWO parties does not really make sense to "our EC-Europeans" ... of course they have to find a conclusion before ... Best wishes to you. Biden or Trump? It's your system ...
AFD + CSU + CDU + FDP nearly match the Republicans from far right to center right. Linkspartei + Die Grünen + SPD + FDP (again 😀) nearly match the Democrats from far left to center left. The known US politicians can somewhat be assigned to the German parties. My take is: President Biden to SPD, Senators Manchin and Collins to FDP, Senator Sanders to Linkspartei, Senator Warren to Die Grünen, Senator Mcconnell to CDU, Governor Desantis to CSU, Former President Trump to AFD.
The video is not up to date. The current Cancellor is Olaf Schlolz (SPD) and not Angela Merkel (CDU). Also the head of the Bundestag (Bundestagspräsident) is not Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU). It is currently Baerbel Bas (SPD). Also the legislature of the Bundestag isn't correct. There are four years between the elections instead of five Years. The Bundestag has also current 736 seats and the the coalition is between the SPD, FDP and the greens (traffic-ligth-coalition --> is named so, because of the colors of the partys). And for the last question: Yes it is like an domino effekt. You don't vote the presdient, cancelor or any one else direct. You can only vote the Bundestag, Bundesrat, Landtag (the state legislate), the eu parlement and some lokal (municipal) councils. But the last things every state handles on the own way.
This video is not really up to date. So right now their is a coalition between the SPD(red), the greens(green) and the FDP(yellow). It´s called the "Ampel"-coaliton (trans. traffic light). And our new chancellor is the less known Olaf Scholz. And I really like your videos!
Sorry, but the video is not correct, because it is too old. The current coalition (from 2021) is an SPD-FDP-Greens coalition. The current chancellor is Olaf Scholz.
This video is a bit outdated regarding to the elected parliament and the chancelor. There has been a switch after the last general elections. Now Angela Merkel (CDU) has resigned, and Olaf Scholz (SPD) has taken over, her former minister of finance. Where there used to be a coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD now there is a coalition of the SPD, FDP and the Greens. In Germany the coalitions are often called according to the symbolic colors attributed to the parties, so the current is RED-YELLOW-GREN, or in short a Traffic-Light Coalition. 😄
Before we had an emperor in Germany, Germany was divided into 16 principalities and kingdoms. The emperor brought the country together. Before World War II, Germany was one country. After World War II, Germany would be divided into East (Russian occupied) and West (divided into English, French and US) zones of influence. In the West we already had the division into 11 federal states. This would take away many responsibilities from federal politics so that something like what happened to Hitler can no longer happen. Today the federal system is more of an obstacle in many areas.
It is complicated but the main reason is to divide power equally with the power to stop other parts doing misdeeds. All institutions control each other. The voters simply vote for their candidates of their region as representative. These are 299 local representatives in total. And the other 299 seats get the parties according to ratio. I could vote for party C but for the representative of party K, who is better suited to represent my regional interests. The amount of parties varies every election and can be higher than 30 or 40 competitors. But most of them don't get enough votes. You have to get at least 5 percent of the votes or 3 direct elected seats for representatives to get in the parliament. This prevents to have a lot of one seat parties. But it is risky and forces a lot of resentment for voters. If you vote for a directive program of a party put to form a coalition the party betrays their own point they got voted for. For example The Greens betrayed voters and force their way almost 180 degrees turned. But their coalition partner FDP (Liberals) lost their position in the state election for keeping ther promises - they got kicked out of Berlin senate due to 5 percent hurdle for their bad image they provide on federal level.
The current coalition would be SPD, Greens and FDP. A coalition is based on a treaty between the parties stating goals and common projects for the upcoming legislature period (as well as some topics to put on hold because they couldn't yet agree on them). That treaty does in most cases also state which party has the lead in which department. 11:16 The "fathers and mothers" of the constitution decided against direct election of the president because of bad experiences with that concept at the end of the Weimar republic. They considered it would give to much legitimacy to a single person even if they stripped the position from all real power, and they feared to get election campaigns concentrating on populism instead of responsibility. Austria however switched back to direct election of their president (who is also slightly more powerful within their very similar system than the German one) and did well so far. Austria is however also a far smaller country (the population is about half of that of biggest German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and only slightly more than that of the fourth biggest state of Lower Saxony). They wanted the parliament to be the institution with the highest legitimacy as the only direct representant of the sovereign, the electorate. The position of the federal president is therefore comparable to that of the king or queen in the UK and not to that of the Emperor of the German Empire before WW I or that of the president of the Weimar republic 1919-1932. The German system strengthens the significance of parties and party programs - the top politicians represent that programs (mostly) and are (to a certain extent) exchangeable. You'll have still your local representatives which you can know in person, but it is difficult to assess e.g. a candidate for chancellorship who you only know by some well-prepared TV appearances if there is no well-organized party structure behind to keep him in line (and can replace him very quickly if he proves himself publicly to be corrupt).
In the USA House of Representatives, the Congressmen and Congresswomen of each party elect their own Congressional leader. If you didn’t have a President, that person would become your Prime Minister (not directly elected by the voters or by the Electoral College).
😂 Well, you know... We've kinda had some issues in the past with electing our leader directly... 😅 So when Germany (Western Germany) was rebuilt after WW2 they essentially made up a constotution that does not include direct voting by the people for laws or the president or chancellor... 😊
The political system was implemented in this way by the victorious powers UK and USA after World War II. And we thank you for that. It's a good system.
The german political system was formed after WW2, at a time, when US, briitsh, french and french forces where still responsible for everything going on in (western-) germany (yes, there also were soviet forces responsible for parts of germany, but those formed a totally different government system which split germany in two and was only reunified famously in 1990). So, obviously, the US and the other allied forced also had a say in the political system of germany. One could argue, that the modern german system was based on a US system without the baggage of an outdated constitution, that for some reason, the US wasn't - and still isn't - able to modernize. And - sure - the mindset of putting community before personal freedom.
Faults on the video regarding 5% government and coalitions: Coalitions supplement for the needed majority in the house: you need 51% of the Parliament to legislate and/or form a government. Until 1970s, one party was able to rule, as only two parties were in the house. With the years following, new parties formed and the society became more complex. Therefore coalitions are formed to get the majority. 5% are needed to get your party into Parliament at all. Any vote below 5% and you're out.
From the Netherlands... yust take the facts and reasons why you/we vote in a democracy. -- knowingly choose someone that is going to represent you, your ideas of a better forward going future. Or even a better handling of things in the past. -- Ones you have done that, you return to your duties/obligations and the rewards given by this notion of vote for those who would provide and deliver and even protect. -- otherwise, there are many ways this party or coalition kan bee send home. But the thing is we the people live by rule of we have voted and expect a certain cooperation between the parties. If it doesn't work, we see you in the voting box soon 🧐.. One other issue is indeed the fact that almost no one is occupied with the right to vote or the gerrymandering of voters. All this is taking too much-needed energy from a society. Of course, you will find some or many differences between democraties. But one thing they have incoming 🤔 -- many party systems are a natural expression of a democracy. All of the opinions presented included governing . BUT... what comes closer to a one party system? So called dictator-ish system???. Well... ? A two system party system 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡. Easy to go from 2 to 1, don't we think? Ore as it looks like ad this moment in the USA, it's. It's hard to tell the difference or draw the lines
The role of the president is slightly misrepresented, albeit implicitly. Yes, the president officially appoints the chancellor, the ministers, dissolves parliament, veto laws, etc., but his/her authority to do so is very carefully limited and is generally a rubber stamp kind of function. The best presidents have led by their moral authority, not by any political power. The worst ones - well, they generally did no harm. One of them from around 1960 is still famous even today because of his incredible gaffes when speaking. But he didn’t harm the country.
8:22 I would not go for "more civilized" as for Germany, but your constitution is very old. Democracy was not widely used in Western countries. A lot of the design of your system is borrowed from the UK which is rooted in class society. While Germany has a fairly new constitution, it uses the continental parliamentary style and well we could learn from our own failures and all the problems other countries have including the US. Furthermore, the current 2 chamber model is a modern interpretation of the US system. You just need an upgrade in four places: (a) Proportional representation in the House of Representatives (b) Supreme Court seats are limited to 2 x 5 years (or any other limited range) (c) Supreme Court seats can only be elected by 2/3 of the members of the House (or if you really want to mimic Germany, half the members are selected by the House the other be the Senate for both cambers the winning candidate must have 2/3 of the votes) (d) Larger states get more seats in the Senate. So small states get 2 and large states up to 5.
It's exactly as you say - you don't directly vote for a specific government. You vote for a party and the winner creates the government. Though you usually get the name of a party's man candidate for a chancellor (rest of Europe has the prime minister = premier). Also, the winner party has the majority in the parliament. If the winner isn't the majority, then a coalition is necessery. In the USA it's different because you have the presidential system. You vote for a president and he apoints his companions.
The video is at least 1 year old. Merkel resigned 2 years ago. Currently the Kanzler is Mr. Olaf Scholz. The Bundesrat is elected by the state governments. Contrary to the Senate states with more inhabitants have more votes in the Bundesrat. And contrary to the Senate, the Bundesrat has way less power. The Greens in Germany are more center left. In some areas even center-right (in particular when coming from a strong religious background). The German left is really the leftmost party in the Bundestag. The Bundestag election is designed with most possible fairness in mind. So each vote counts the same (except one votes for a party which does not get over those 5%).
In most EU-stats the goverment in most EU countries the government consists of a coalition. German Wikipedia has a matching page with a list of all EU governments and their respective political divisions across parties: "Liste der Regierungen der Staaten der Europäischen Union" Only 3 out of 27 countries have no coalition.
But please keep in your mind, that this video is so old, that it just shows the previous political leaders ^^" To answer your question: No, people already know before voting who will be the chancellor candidate ;) the president thing is just something "formal" after votes.
8:08 Due to the German electoral system their coalitions tend to be a bit pathetic, and rarely gas more then 2 parties... Their system heavily favours bigger parties, not *quite* as badly as the US or UK system, but more then ours do here in Norway for instance... Our parliament has far fewer representative (169) but still manages to have 10 parties represented.
If you want to know more about the big parties in germany, I would recommend this (rather entertaining) video by Lucas Bender: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_OnO7uxmJzg.html
10:52 Nope, absolutely not. The President can refuse to sign legislation into law ONLY if the legislation is blatantly unconstitutional. But even that is debated. Some even suggest that the President can only refuse to sign legislation into law if the process required to pass legislation has not been abided by. Otherwise he's just a figurehead. He formally appoints the Chancellor after s-/he has been elected by the Bundestag (Federal Diet) and formally appoints and dismisses the Federal Ministers on request of the Chancellor. The President has no say in the matter.
Die Prinzen (the prices) is or was a popular eastern german popmusic band, that apparently said "It wasn't all bad (in the DDR)" - probably in an interview
The German President is as much power as the Queen/ King in the UK. The Chancellor has the power, but it not directly voted. Every Party nominates a Chancellor canidate to the elections, and if you vote for the party you will get their Chancellor canidate as Chancellor - if the party wins. The party with the most votes usually gets the Chancellor job in the government. There are usually no big surprises, as the opinion polls usually show wich party is leading.
Concerning 11:04: While we in Germany do not directly vote on our head of government (like the US voters do), it is still not completely random who will become the next chancellor after an election. The parties usually announce several months before the election who will be their nominee for the office of chancellor. So, if party A has Herr Müller running as their candidate for being chancellor, the voter knows very well that this man will become chancellor if his party succeeds in the election. So, the voter knows in advance who he is voting for despite not directly electing the chancellor ...at least if you are voting for one of the two traditional major players in German federal politics (the CDU/CSU or the SPD). The minor parties you saw in the video (Greens, FDP, Left-Wingers and AFD) often do not bother to nominate their own candidate as they normally only become the junior partner in a government coalition. There have been exceptions to this, especially in recent years, as the growing diversity in our political spectrum on the federal level also meant that the traditional major players lost voters to the minor ones, but in the history of the FRG, only these two major parties have so far ever provided a chancellor. So, as a voter of the minor parties, you will have to wait and see if the party of your choice makes it into the government and with whom. This is also not entirely random as some constellations are much more likely than others (the rather conservative CDU/CSU would probably never enter a coalition with the Left-Wingers for example).
The people vote for party programms and the parties nominate a person as chancellor candidate. The biggest party in a coalition has the chancellor post the other often the vice-chancellor. After the desaster of the republics created after world war one - which most became fashist cictatorships in the 1920s and 30s - many countries got new constitutions after world war two - or for the eastern Europeans - after the end of Russian occupation 1989/90 which tried to establish a political system that prevent that again. (E.g. in Austria and Germany the fashist leaders got to power by failings of the democratic parliaments.) On the other hand the political structures of England and the USA are the same as creatied by its oligarchic founders - both agreeing in their destate on the "uneducated masses" - so many things work by "gentlemens agreements" which brings troubles in lack of "gentlemen".
Two things about german elections that can be said as "unspoken rules": 1. Normaly the party with the most votes, claims the right to appoint the cancelor and build the government. Meaning its common courtesy (from the other parties) that they are the first to talk to the other elected parties and find common ground for a coalition. (Those talks, if successful, result in a "coalitioncontract" where to define key goals of there possible government) Only if all those talks fail (or it very much looks like that) the party that has the best shot at forming a coalition successfully starts der coalitiontalks with the other parties. (this is normaly the party with the secondmost votes. 2. When elections are coming up in Germany normaly all parties, who think they have a shot at getting the most votes and appoint cancelor (Point 1) will name a cancelor candidate for there party. So you dont vote the cancelor directly, but you can be sure, if you vote for a given party and they DO get the most votes they WILL make their candidate cancelor, if they are able to build a coalition. (This is not lawenforced, but i dont recall there was ever a different person being appointed cancelor then the candidate. It would be an enormous scandal.) Also one thing the guy from the video didnt say, it is not uncommon that a coalition consists of more that 2 parties. At the moment government consists of SPD with cancelor Olaf Scholz, the greens and the FDP
Yeah he did good in pronunciation 😂 but we hear he is English. There are certainly people voiting like you mentioned! 😂 But usually they either know their favorite partie or voiting based on the parties current Wahlversprechen ( election promise). Which differs from vote to vote, still the parties only give election promises within their election program and aim. There are Apps who can help you deside if you don't know who to vote! Like the wahlomat or a few others. But that's not always helpful, bc they only ask questions about the topics and sometimes nothing for your interest as a voter!
8:32 No, not really. Because there's no third or fourth etc party benefitting if you attack the other party in the US and because having 1 more vote then another party gives you 100% of the power in a electoral circle people simply aren't incentivised to cooperate in the US. If you cooperate with others you're essentially "helping the enemy" in the US system. And it's conceivable to have a majority. While in Europe most countries have a system where it's literally impossible to get *anything* done without support from at least one other party every single election and you may still get some power even if there's 9 other parties with more voters then you (in Norways case) or 6 other parties (in Germanys case).
11:31 I’m British so I may get things wrong but... officially yes, they are just trusting State MPs and Federal MPs to pick a good minister president, chancellor, federal president, and judges etc however unofficially the parties will always vote for their chancellor candidate... so if you vote for a party you are indirectly voting for the chancellor candidate who is supported by them, and the same on the state level with the minister-president. The Federal President is different, in that case the voters actually are just trusting their state cabinets and the Bundestag to pick a good president for Germany, but since the role is so restricted and essentially exists to sort the situation out in case a chancellor can’t be elected, refuse to sign undemocratic legislation, and be a unifying figure for the nation, I’d assume ordinary people on the street don’t worry so much about the Presidential Election. Edit: I forgot to mention that the MPs may vote for another parties chancellor candidate if they agree to form a coalition, in return that party will get cabinet positions and the party of that chancellor candidate will support some legislation proposals by the party who is agreeing to vote for their chancellor. The system therefore allows for more guaranteed compromise than the US one, which just hopes that parties may occasionally get along but the presidency doesn’t rest on compromise like it does in the US.
11:05 No. The Bundestag is elected directly by the people and in turn elects the Chancellor. The reason for that is simple: If a Chancellor dies or for another reason leaves office you don't have to have a new election since the government still stands, it's just the head of government that is gone and has to be replaced. The Vice Chancellor would take the place of the Chancellor. The Chancellor is the head of government and thus appointments his/her cabinet which is the collection of all the different Ministers (cf. Secretaries in the US). The President is the head of state, as mentioned only a figurehead (sort of like the King in the UK) and is elected by the Bundesversammlung which consists of Members of the Bundestag and representatives from the different state governments. Again the President doesn't hold any real power. He's not even allowed to make a trip without permission by the cabinet.
your vote is in fact detached from actual nominations within the executive bodies. you can expect that the biggest party leader is later on the chancellor. funny how you suggested that maybe there's a lot of grief/complaint because of that - the opposite is true. german people aren't really complaining about their leaders/leadership - except maybe some radicals. (some leaders would be denounced later, after "stepping down" 🙃)
Well, it is not exactly as though Americans directly vote for the President either. You put your trust into the electoral college to vote in your interest as well. And, DEPENDING on the majorities in each state, you get what you wished or not as all of the spoils go to ONE person by a simple majority and are not levvied by percentages of votes per state….
It is a constant compromise. You got German political system in a nutshell. 😄Also about the domino effect. Yes, we do hope the one party we voted for won't screw up - in a coalition, just to be in power...
There is some mistakes in the video you are reacting on. Bundestagswahl ist every 4 not 5 years. Angela Merkel is not the Chancelere anymore since last year .... and more ... Like your video though, greetings from Berlin
basically the political persons and political parties have a plan what they want to do. You vote what Plans you like the most. Most Political Parties and Persons dont respect the Plans and do whatever they want (some even receive large sums from private companys as advisor). So normal Citizens can only influence the Politics by doing demonstrations. Changing the Politcs by creating new politic parties almost all the time fail, because they need so much votes to reach the 5% burden. My opinion as a german: They need to introduce nation wide votes for big political changes.
11:24 you are correct. People cannot elect head of the executive branch themselves. However, the government has much less power in Germany. The main body of power is the parliament (in your video called Federal Diet). So essentially, the parliament should be on top of things in the graphics. There is discussion about how about public opinion, but Germany is a representative democracy so we elect parties which have laid out their goals in a election program. And we vote for them on that basis (and their public image of course). There are also options for direct democracy on state level, but not on federal level. After WW2 this system was chosen to require more consensus to make changes and limit the options of going of the rails again and end up in a fascist dictatorship.
A person's political identity/loyalty usually lies with a certain party, not a person. So you vote for the party you support, because you want them to be able to implement their programm. During election campaigns parties of course run with a "head candidate", a person they will make chancellor if they win the election. So you have an idea who it will be, even though you don't vorlte for them directly.
@MoreJps That video is really bad. If you have any questions or want a proper explanation on how the stuff works just ask me. I'm a law student so I should be able to answer all your questions. I also have Discord in case you want to have a chat about this or any other German political topics.
