This paper examines the importance of electoral rules for legislators' behavior. The German electoral system includes a mechanism which assigns whether legislators are elected under the "first-past-the-post" (FPTP), or the proportional representation (PR) electoral rule. Using this institution,...

Most efforts to detect the consequences of divided government in German federalism by analyzing legislative statistics have been unsuccessful. Therefore, there is still much debate in Germany about the gridlock potential of divided government, as there is in the United States. Using a...

Tanaka Makiko, Tochter des wegen seiner Plutokratie und jedoch auch seiner hohen Popularität legendären Premierministers Tanaka Kakuei (Amtszeit 1972-1974), gehört zu einer der populärsten Erbabgeordneten in Japan. Obwohl Japan als konsolidierte Demokratie erachtet wird, wird der Anteil der...

Die ehemalige konservative Oppositionsführerin Park Geun-hye (2004-2006) gilt als aussichtsreiche Kandidatin für die kommenden Präsidentschaftswahlen im Dezember 2007. Die Tochter des so genannten Entwicklungsdiktators Park Chung-hee, der während seines Regimes (1961-1979) den...

This paper challenges the assertion that European politics would be closer to the citizens' preferences if decision power were transferred from the Council of Ministers to the European Parliament. On the one hand, citizens benefit from a greater transparency in the Parliament's debates compared...

Efforts to verify legislative gridlock in German federalism by analyzing legislative statistics have been largely unsuccessful. For instance, contrary to popular opinion, the complete failure of a government initiative due to the veto of an opposition-dominated Bundesrat is actually quite a rare...