Search

Nearly a year after its formation, the Nation Alliance, consisting of six opposition par­ties ("Table of Six"), finally started to act like a full-fledged electoral alliance against the ruling bloc under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The six opposition leaders have long been criticised for failing to take concrete steps towards embodying a viable po­lit­ical alternative to the People’s Alliance of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) since they publicly signed the joint manifesto for Turkey’s transition into the "Strengthened Parliamentary System" in February 2022. Although the alliance has yet to announce its joint presidential can­didate, it has manifested an unprecedentedly comprehensive joint platform in nine policy areas, including the rule of law, public administration, social policy, economy, and foreign policy. The 200-page joint document provides a comprehensive overview of what changes Turkey can be expected to go through in the short and medium terms should the Nation Alliance manage to defeat President Erdoğan's ruling bloc in the up­coming elections, which will probably take place on 14 May 2023. Even though it would not immediately offer a solution to various issues in Turkey-EU relations, a pos­sible opposition victory could bring bilateral relations back to an institutional frame­work, whereby both parties can cooperate in a productive way to work out their problems and focus on common interests. (Autorenreferat)

"Administrative Textsorten, darunter prominent das Protokoll, stehen im Zentrum jeder Bürokratie, sie sorgen für das Funktionieren von Wissenstransfer innerhalb von Institutionen über Zeit und zwischen Akteuren. Was sie festhalten, ist relevant: Sie sind Quellen für die Forschung, sie sorgen in unterschiedlichen Verhältnissen aber auch für Organisationsgedächtnis, Verbindlichkeit und Transparenz innerhalb und zwischen Institutionen, Verwaltungseinheiten und der Gesellschaft. Das Panel nimmt die Verantwortung der Überlieferung von Protokollen ins Zentrum und fragt, wie Daten und Applikationen verfasst sein müssen, um der Gedächtnisfunktion von historischen "open governmental data" gerecht zu werden. Primäres Ziel des Panels ist die Entwicklung gemeinsamer Best-practice-Mittel bei der Edition von protokollartigen Texten, insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Möglichkeiten von Mapping oder Harmonisierung der Datenmodelle der Projekte (etwa im Hinblick auf Metadatenerstellung oder APIs für Datenaustausch/Harvesting sowie Anbindung an Open Data-Portale). Daneben erwarten wir Hinweise zu wiederverwendbaren Werkzeugen, die sich in der Bearbeitung (nicht nur) dieser Textsorte bewährt haben." Ein Beitrag zur 8. Tagung des Verbands "Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum" - DHd 2022 Kulturen des digitalen Gedächtnisses.

Gerd Möll: Mit Geld spielt man nicht: Glücksspiel und "Glücksspielsucht" im parlamentarischen Diskurs. Kulturen der Gesellschaft, Bd. 52. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag 2021. ISBN 978-3-8376-6071-5

Political groups in the Chamber of Deputies and similar groups in the lower chambers of foreign parliaments Abstract The aim of this paper was to present the historical development of political groups within the framework of Czechoslovak and Czech parliamentarianism, in that the emphasis was placed on the legal regulation of political groups within individual rules of procedure, taking into account their actual application in practice. Although the legal regulation of political groups was very stark and sketchy in the First Republic, it proved to be the case that it was precisely during this period that political groups were key actors in the National Assembly. While today's political groups do have an irreplaceable role in the constitutional system of the Czech Republic, they do not achieve such dominance in the lower chamber of parliament as was the case at the beginning of Czechoslovak statehood. However, the hegemony of the First Republic's political groups was brought about by a departure from certain electoral and constitutional principles, particularly as regards the free mandate. The parliamentary system in the First Republic was based on close cooperation between representatives of political parties at the National Assembly, in that this cooperation took place at the level envisaged in the rules of...

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit den Auswirkungen der Corona-Krise auf die Arbeitsweise des Wiener Landtages. Die Autorin untersucht jene Punkte, die sich in der Arbeitsweise des Landtages und seiner Mitglieder krisenbedingt verändert haben. Dabei stellt sie fest, dass das formelle Recht (die Bundesverfassung, die Landesverfassung und die Geschäftsordnung des Landtages) im Wesentlichen unverändert geblieben ist, es aber dennoch zu teils einschneidenden Änderungen in der Arbeitsweise gekommen ist. Das betrifft insbesondere die Etablierung einer „Expressgesetzgebung“, den Verzicht beziehungsweise freiwillige Einschränkung auf parlamentarische Rechte. Das Spannungsfeld zum freien Mandat wird detailliert dargestellt. Fragen wie jene, ob Abgeordneten die Teilnahme an Sitzungen pandemiebedingt überhaupt verwehrt werden darf, werden erörtert. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden weitergehende Fragen, wie die Veränderung der Arbeitsteilung in einem Landtagsklub auf der einen Seite und die Themenverengung, die die Krise mit sich gebracht hat, auf der anderen Seite, besprochen. Ein besonderes Augenmerk legt die Autorin auf die Thematik der Verkürzung von oppositionellen Rechten und Möglichkeiten. Die Auswirkungen auf das Interpellationsrecht werden ebenso untersucht wie der erschwerte Kontakt zu den BürgerInnen. Letzterer ist der Autorin ein wichtiges Anliegen, zumal die Pandemie Grundrechtseingriffe in vielfältiger Gestalt mit sich bringt. In einem fundierten Ausblick weist die Erstellerin der Arbeit auf Möglichkeiten hin, wie in Zukunft in Krisensituationen, in denen das Zusammenwirken des Landtages erschwert ist, verfahren werden kann. Kritisch beleuchtet wird die ExpertInnenabhängigkeit der Politik ebenso wie die Tatsache, dass der Öffentlichkeit die Teilnahme an Sitzungen des Landtages und an Veranstaltungen verwehrt wurde. Zahlreiche Interviews belegen in der Praxis das, was die Autorin theoretisch ausgeführt hat. Die Auswertung erfolgte nach gängigen wissenschaftlichen Methoden. Der Bogen der Interviewten spannt sich hierbei von SpitzenpolitikerInnen, wie dem damaligen Vizebürgermeister von Wien, über Abgeordnete bis hin zu leitenden MitarbeiterInnen der operativen Klubverwaltung. In der Arbeit wird auch auf die theoretische Bedeutung der normativen und empirischen Demokratietheorien beleuchtet. Gerade in der Krise wird uns bewusst, welche Eingriffsmöglichkeiten der Staat gegenüber jedem/jeder Einzelnen hat. Die Bedingungen und die Intensität dieser Eingriffe können je nach Betrachtungsweise differenzieren. Vor diesem Hintergrund ist die Darstellung der Baugesetze der Bundesverfassung von besonderer Bedeutung. Im Lichte der Krise wird auch ein Augenmerk auf die Resilienz gesetzgebender Organe, die auch in Zeiten, in denen ein körperliches Zusammentreten nicht möglich ist, handlungsfähig sein müssen, gelegt. This paper deals with the effects of the Corona crisis on the functioning of the state parliament. The author examines those points that have changed in the functioning of the state parliament and its members as a result of the crisis. She finds out that the formal law (the federal constitution, the provincial constitution and the state parliament's rules of procedure) has remained essentially unchanged, but that there have nevertheless been changes, some of them drastic, in the way the parliament works. This applies in particular to the establishment of "express legislation," the renunciation or voluntary restriction of parliamentary rights. The conflict with the free mandate is also described in detail. Questions such as if members of parliament have might been denied to participate in meetings at all due to the pandemic have been discussed. Against this background, more far-reaching questions have been discussed, such as the change in the division of labor in a state parliamentary club on the one hand and the narrowing of topics brought about by the crisis on the other hand. The author pays particularly attention to the issue of the curtailment of oppositional rights and opportunities. The effects on the right of interpellation are examined, as is the more difficult contact with citizens. The latter is an important concern for the author, especially since the pandemic entails encroachments on fundamental rights in a variety of forms. In a well-founded forecast, the author points out several possibilities how to proceed in the future in crisis situations in which the cooperation of the state parliament is impeded. The dependence of politics on experts is critically examined, given the fact that the public has been denied the opportunity to participate in sessions of the state parliament. Numerous interviews prove in practice what the author has theoretically elaborated. The evaluation was carried out according to standard scientific methods. The interviewees ranged from top politicians, such as the deputy mayor of Vienna at the time, to members of the state parliament as well as senior members of the operational club administration. The paper also focuses on the theoretical significance of normative and empirical theories of democracy. Especially in times of crisis, we become aware of the possibilities of intervention the state has vis-à-vis each individual. The conditions and the intensity of these interventions might differ depending on the point of view. Against this background, the presentation of the building laws of the Federal Constitution is of particular importance. In the light of the crisis, attention is also paid to the resilience of legislative bodies, which must be able to act even in times when physical meetings are not possible. vorgelegt von: Angela Schütz Masterarbeit Wien, FH Campus Wien 2021

The presented thesis deals with the New Right in Germany and its current reception of the Conservative Revolution of the Weimar Republic. The thesis primarily focuses on the German New Right, which it aims to define by its references to ideological and political stances of the right-wing conservative and extremist movement of the Weimar Republic - the Conservative Revolution. Based on a detailed textual analysis of selected articles from the New Right's journal Sezession, the thesis presents the elementary worldviews of the New Right as well as its rhetoric and strategies. Furthermore, it is demonstrated how the New Right perceives the central ideas of the Conservative Revolution (anti- enlightenment, anti-liberalism, anti-democracy, anti-parliamentarism, advocacy of an authoritarian state concept and promotion of a homogenous society) and how it implicitly or explicitly employs these ideas for its argumentation. The thesis proved that the worldviews of the Conservative Revolution nowadays still function as an ideological reservoir of the New Right, meaning also that the New Right is theoretically little innovative and takes over and passes on a large part of the ideas of the intellectuals of the Conservative Revolution, which are currently one hundred years old.

Diese Arbeit handelt von den Möglichkeiten, wie Parlamente ihre Kapazität zur Erfüllung ihres politischen und rechtlichen Auftrags zur demokratischen Steuerung der menschlichen Gesellschaft zurück erlangen können. Im Brennpunkt der Untersuchung steht dabei die Frage, wie die österreichischen Landtage angesichts der aktuellen Herausforderungen und der raschen Veränderung ihrer Umweltbedingungen ihre Steuerungsleistung verbessern können. Exemplarisch wird dazu der Salzburger Landtag analysiert und zukünftige Reformschritte auf ihre Umsetzbarkeit und Wirksamkeit untersucht. Als aktuelle Reformprojekte wurden die Social Media Auftritte des Landtags als Online-Plattform untersucht. Aus den daraus gewonnen Erkenntnissen soll auf die Machbarkeit zukünftiger Beteiligungsprojekte und deren Nutzen für eine Verbesserung der demokratischen Governance des Salzburger Landtags geschlossen werden. This paper is about how parliaments can recover their capacity to fulfill their constitutional function of democratic governance with a focus on Austrian regional parliaments (Landtage). The Social Media presence of Salzburg State Parliament (Salzburger Landtag) is analyzed as an example and the findings are used to draft future projects of reform to enhance democratic governance outcomes. Masterarbeit Universität Salzburg 2020

From Medieval to Tudor times, the doctrine of the King’s Two Bodies was fundamental in government and the reproduction of social order. The doctrine held that the body of the monarch is simultaneously mortal and immortal. In terms of the hegemony of the power regime, this was given by God. It has long been assumed that the rise of Liberal Plebiscitary Parliamentary Democracy put an end to Royal absolutism. This paper uses the political thought of Carl Schmitt and Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz to examine if this assumption is valid. The paper argues that the doctrine of the King’s Two Bodies survives in greatly translated form. The highest achieved celebrities today have two bodies, the one (biological and incorrigible), the other (mediated and incorrigible). The paper uses data from the posthumous existence of the highest achieved celebrities to substantiate this proposition. In turn, this leads to the beginnings of an enquiry into what the role of achieved celebrity in Liberal Plebiscitary Parliamentary Democracy, i.e., a society based on the principle of homogeneous equality, might be.

Zusammenfassung Die konstitutionelle, reprasentative Demokratie muss sich neuerdings wieder verstarkt der Behauptung von der Suprematie des Volkswillens entgegenstellen. Diese Debatte wird in Italien seit dreisig Jahren gefuhrt und mundete in mehrere, zumeist gescheiterte Verfassungsreformen. An ihnen offenbarte sich nicht selten die schmale Grenze zwischen Systembruch und notwendiger Erneuerung, zwischen direkter Ausubung der Volkssouveranitat und plebiszitarer Herrschaft. Der Reformprozess zeigt einerseits, welche Anpassungsleistung eine rigide Verfassung in der Gestaltung des demokratischen Prozesses aufbringen muss und darf, und inwieweit es andererseits einer Verfassung moglich ist, ihre Geltungsbehauptungen und ihre Dauerhaftigkeit durch Verfahren und institutionelles Gleichgewicht selbst abzusichern. Fortschreitende plebiszitare Tendenzen, bis zu Anzeichen einer delegative democracy, ging dabei einher mit einer impliziten Erhohung der verfassungsimmanenten Grenzen. Schlusselworter: Verfassung, Demokratie, Revisionsverfahren, Parlamentarismus, delegative democracy ----- Abstract Constitutional and representative democracies are nowadays facing critics again which suggest the supremacy of the people’s will. In Italy, since at least the late 1980’s, this debate lead to several constitutional reforms, the last in 2016, undertaken by the Renzi government. Nevertheless, most of them haven’t pass the revision process yet. Those reforms are pointing out the thin line between necessary renewal and system change as well as between direct expression of the sovereign will and plebiscitarian government. On the one hand, the Italian case reveals how a rigid constitution may and has to adapt the democratic process to new requests, on the other hand, it illustrates the constitution’s ability to guarantee her prevalence and permanence, determining special procedures and institutional balance. In this process, in Italy, the advance of plebiscitarian attitudes, to the point of showing characteristics of a delegative democracy, is accompanied by tendencies to increase the constitutional restraints. ----- Bibliographie: Heber, Maike: Konstitutionalismus und parlamentarische Demokratie auf dem Prufstand. Italiens Verfassung zwischen Uberwindung, Erneuerung und Erhalt, ZPTh, 2-2017, S. 159-177. https://doi.org/10.3224/zpth.v8i2.03

Ludmila Zacharčenko Russian constitution and political regime after 1993 Abstract Topic of this bachelor's thesis is the Russian constitution approved in 1993 and the Russian type of regime. Thesis aims to find out the reasons for the approval of the new Russian constitution, the way how it influenced the political development in the country and classification of the constitution from the point of view of the typology of political regimes. Above all, it is a comparison of the powers of state authorities, both in terms of constitutional and political practice. The hypothesis of this work is - The Russian Constitution shows elements of democratic regime, but political practice is more consistent with a hybrid or undemocratic system. The thesis analyzes the type of regime that emerged in the country following the approval of the Constitution in 1993 and whether it was more or less formal, or whether the type of regime in Russia was actually applied in real political practice. In connection with the history of Russia, I also deal with the consolidation of democracy and the problems associated with post-communist transformation. This work is processed like a case study based on qualitative research methods. From a methodological point of view, the thesis is based on a new institutionalism that focuses on the...

Indonesia presents an extremely rare quasi-experimental research case: the constitutional reforms and the transition to full presidentialism have effected a presidentialization of political parties that is largely in line with the changes predicted by the model of Samuels and Shugart [2010. Presidents, parties and prime ministers: How separation of powers affects party organization and behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press]. Especially the rise of the new president and his difficult relationship with his own party are testimony to this. But a closer look reveals that the model has to be adapted to Indonesian politics. Presidents have tools to forge grand coalitions and to overcome the dualism to an extent. The size and history of political parties as well as wider socio-economic changes, that is an increasing oligarchization of party organization, have to be considered. Moreover, highly personalized vehicle parties serving the interests of a presidential candidate have emerged. It follows that institutional and structural incentives combined have produced a party system consisting of different party types.

Dissertation thesis "Relationship between National Parliaments and the European Union" examines the impacts of the European integration on the national parliaments - the limitation of their functions and powers, measures undertaken to compensate these limitation in both the EU and the national law and the new roles of national parliaments in the context of European integration. The point of departure of the thesis is the notion of representative democracy as a still unsurpassed concept of a legitimate exercise of public authority. National parliaments mainly fulfil the controlling and legitimising function in the EU affairs. To this end, they have various legal instruments at their disposal. The fulfilment of these functions is limited by political and legal factors stemming from the nature of parliaments as political, not professional bodies and from their role in the national constitutional systems. Special attention is paid to the role of national parliaments in the evolving economic and monetary union. The general findings are confronted with the legal regulation and practice in the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

The case of Ireland provides an example of a long-Term critical reflection on the nature of democracy that is not linked to social movements. Instead it is the result of an interplay between social science research, mass media, and parliamentary debate, all of which employ the notion of clientelism. The structural feature on which the respective critique focuses is the peculiar relationship between public representatives and voters in Ireland. It is strongly based in con-stituency service and individual brokerage and thus contradicts universalistic expectations towards modern politics. The article starts with a justification of the choice of the case and the theoretical framework, i.e. the sociology of critical capacity proposed by Boltanski and Thevenot. It then introduces records of parliamentary debates and newspaper articles as the empirical material and qualitative content analysis as the main method of analysis. Subsequent sections reconstruct the dynamics of the critical reflection over a thirty-year period and highlight significant patterns of critique and justification.

This diploma theses focuses on the possibility of federalization of Ukraine or autonomy of Donbas in order to ensure the stability of Ukrainian political system and societal cohesion. The bases for this is the analysis of the cleavages in both, Ukrainian society and its political space. The analysis is bases on definition of ideological dimensions presented by Arend Lijphart with some modifications with respect to is applicability on Ukrainian situation. This part of the theses therefore analyzes the language and religion questions, issue of foreign policy orientation, democratization and deoligarchization of Ukraine, the support for Ukrainian independence and territorial cohesion or the socioeconomic differences. On the bases of this analysis and the discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of such solutions for divided countries, the final part of the theses discusses the suitability of federalization of Ukraine and the autonomy for Donbas. Attention will be paid also to the question of the conditions for the stable functioning of unitary model in Ukraine. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

The aim of this thesis is to analyse opinions of Milos Zeman as the prime minister and as the president in similar political situations in three circuits, while selected issues closely touched the offices of the Prime Minister, or the President. Comparing these standpoints this paper concludes that Milos Zeman is not very consistent in his opinions. It seems that a change of his views is motivated by the current political profit and maximizing influence of the held constitutional post. Theoretical part of this paper characterizes the political system of the Czech Republic with emphasis on the necessary cooperation of concerned branches of state power. This allows readers the insight and the inclusion of individual standpoints of Milos Zeman to the realities of the practical functioning of the system. On this theoretical basis clearly stands out Milos Zeman's motivation to change viewpoint or stay in the former one.

A country’s form of government has important economic and political consequences, but the determinants that lead countries to choose either parliamentary or presidential systems are largely unexplored. This paper studies this choice by analyzing the factors that make countries switch from parliamentary to presidential systems (or vice versa). The analysis proceeds in two steps. First, we identify the survival probability of the existing form of government (drawing on a proportional hazard model). In our model, which is based on 169 countries, we find that geographical factors and former colonial status are important determinants of survival probability. Also, presidential systems are, ceteris paribus, more likely to survive than parliamentary ones. Second, given that a change has taken place, we identify the underlying reasons based on panel data logit models. We find that domestic political factors are more important than economic ones. The most important factors relate to intermediate internal armed conflict, sectarian political participation, degree of democratization, and party competition, as well as the extent to which knowledge resources are distributed among the members of society.

The Internet holds endless opportunities for exchange and dialogue and the promise of developing a better democratic model. Day-to-day politics are largely driven by economic lobbies in the interest of what Habermas calls their "generalised particularism," the threat to take jobs and tax revenues elsewhere. Citizens' influence over politicians is twofold: they are asked for their input in elections, referenda, online consultations and surveys, and citizens can initiate issues where they see political action needed. Yet these "participative forces," including NGOs, street rallies and charities, regularly fail to reach the ears of elected politicians as effectively as those of well-funded corporate lobbies. Also, this type of voluntary engagement often falls short of presenting the kind of reasoned challenges to the incumbents - by the electorate - that Habermas' communicative action aimed at. A more powerful model would therefore organise the efforts of the electorate in a way that both generates those reasoned arguments, which, as Habermas quite correctly pointed out differ from mere opinions, and delivers them to the elected politicians in a manner they can neither refuse nor ignore. This is what the Citizen Lobby intends to do.

This rigorous thesis devotes its attention to the relationship of the Senate and the Government. It describes the areas in which there is co-operation or a conflict, and outlines possible future adjustment of their mutual relations within the constitutional system. In this work it is suggested that even though the Senate does not have (as the Chamber of Deputies does) the opportunity to express confidence or no confidence in the Government, its relationship towards the Government is significant.

The main topic of this thesis is the vote of non-confidence in the Czech Republic. The main objective is to analyse functioning of the previous Czech governments and the causes that led to the vote of non-confidence. From the theoretical point of view the work concerns the parliamentary systems as such, mutual functioning of the Parliament and the government and describes the process of the vote of confidence and non-confidence. The author compares situations during the Czechoslovak Republic (1918--1938) and the present Czech Republic in terms of the regulations of the vote of confidence and non-confidence in different constitutions. The empirical part focuses on the individual governments from 1992 to the present day and the events that led to request for the vote of non-confidence. In conclusion, in Czech political practice are used all the controlling instruments such as question time or investigative committees, but the vote of non-confidence remains the most noticeable and is more of a tool for the rivalry over power than for resolving governmental problems.

Univerzita Karlova v Praze Právnická fakulta Doktorský studijní program: Teoretické právní vědy Studijní obor: Ústavní právo Školitel: doc. JUDr. Jana Reschová, CSc. DISERTAČNÍ PRÁCE Parlamentarismus v Evropské unii (Parliamentarism in the European Union) JUDr. Martin Soukup Čílova 1803/2 162 00 Praha 6 Abstract European integration in the second half of the twentieth century resulted in the unique and inspiring project of the economic and political union called at first European Communities and later European Union. History of this gradual integration is accompanied by intensive professional, political and also lay discussions on nature of the European union of states and on its future. Institutional separation of powers in the Union and its legitimacy, as well as the issue of vertical separation of powers among the Union and member states have substantial influence on the Union functioning. Its own system of bodies became one of the most significant features of the Communities and later Union. It is typical for the Union bodies as distinct from the classic central bodies of state power that some of them are strongly connected with the member states. Institutional framework of the Union changed considerably after ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon. One of the central and ruling bodies of the Union is the...

The topic of my thesis are parliamentary systems. For this topic I have decided mainly on the grounds that the Czech Republic ranks among countries with a parliamentary form of government, like most of European countries. The work is divided into seven chapters, which are subsequently divided into different subsections or other parts. At the beginning of my work I have engaged in the general concept of political systems. The view of this chapter is mainly to introduce readers to the topic and to acquaint them with the basic types of democratic political systems, which includes particular the parliamentary, presidential and semi-presidential systems. The second chapter is engaged in parliamentary systems and their basic definitions. This chapter contains the theoretical foundation for the whole work and especially introduces readers with the basic principles upon which these systems work. Among these principles is included especially the principle separation of powers which is not too strictly interpreted, the sovereignty of Parliament and the specific relationships between the executive and legislature. In the third chapter I have dealt with the relationships between the supreme constitutional organs, as well as their position in the constitutional system. This issue is very important, just as relations...

The article investigates continuities in the formation and careers of political elites in post-Soviet Russia. Data on the recruitment and careers of MPs (from 1993 until 2003), cabinet ministers (1991 until 2011) and governors (from 1991 until 2011) were used. The authoress identified a partial reproduction of the political elite which may be defined as reproduction circulation. The first form is structural reproduction that is evident in continuities of the socio-demographic profile of political elites. The second-strongest form of path dependency is functional reproduction that was found in career paths of political elites. Finally, individual reproduction was prominent. This reproduction should decrease over time, while functional and structural reproduction are likely to remain., Historical Social Research Vol. 37, No. 2 (2012): Special Issue: Political and Functional Elites in Post-Socialist Transformation: Central and East Europe since 1989/90 Starting Point and Frequency: Year: 1979, Issues per volume: 4, Volumes per year: 1

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der historischen Genese des Gewohnheitsrechts des Einzelnen, Petitionen an die Obrigkeit bzw. an die Staatsregierung einzureichen. Der besondere Fokus liegt hierbei auf den Zusammenhängen im modernen Bayern. Die Bedeutung des Petitionswesens für die parlamentarische Entwicklung im Königreich Bayern stellt den zentralen Forschunggegenstand dar. Die dieser Studie zugrundeliegende Sichtung umfangreicher Archivalien des Hauptstaatsarchivs München geht einher mit der Auswertung und der kritischen Beleuchtung eines Forschungsprojekts zum vorliegenden Thema, welches an der Universität Würzburg durchgeführt wurde., The main topic of this thesis is the historical genesis of the legal custom of individuals to petition their authorities, respectively the government. A special focus has been laid on the correlations of modern Bavaria. The importance of the petition system for the parliamentary evolution in the Kingdom of Bavaria is the main subject of this study. Extensive research of documents and subsequent analysis is as well as a critical evaluation of a research project at the University of Würzburg part of this paper.

"Ein Hauptproblem bei der Erforschung der Bedeutung von politischen und unpolitischen Eigenschaften von Spitzenkandidaten ist das Endogenitätsproblem. Mit Umfragedaten lässt sich kaum ermitteln, welchen Ursprung Urteile zu politischen Kandidaten haben. Mit Hilfe von Experimenten in Deutschland, Schweden, Frankreich und den USA wird in diesem Artikel versucht, Hinweise auf die relative Bedeutung von politischen und unpolitischen Kandidateneigenschaften in präsidentiellen und parlamentarischen Systemen zu gewinnen. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass scheinbar unpolitische Bewertungen sehr häufig einen politischen Ursprung haben und dass Charaktereigenschaften von Kandidaten bei parlamentarischen Wahlentscheidungen einen deutlich geringeren Einfluss haben als bei präsidentiellen Wahlentscheidungen. Diese Befunde sind über die vier Länderkontexte hinweg stabil." (Autorenreferat), "Research on Ieader effects on voting behavior faces major problems of endogeneity. With traditional survey data, one can hardly detect where Ieader evaluations come from. ln this article four experimental studies in Germany, Sweden, France and the USA are presented that try to find evidence on the relative importance of political and apolitical candidate traits in presidential and parliamentary systems. The results indicate that seemingly apolitical evaluations of Ieaders often have a political origin and that character traits of candidates do have a much weaker influence in parliamentary voting decisions than in presidential voting decisions. These findings are robust across the four countries." (author's abstract)

"Der Autor gibt einen eher impressionistischen, denn systematischen Rückblick auf sein Forscherleben. Dabei zeigt sich eine nicht überraschende Kontinuität: In den letzten 40 Jahren, seit 1971, begleitet die Kollektivbiographie den beruflichen Werdegang des Autors. Im Beitrag erfolgt die fokussierte individualbiographische Rekonstruktion der Autorenvita in fünf Zeitabschnitten vor der Folie der Kollektivbiographie: 1) wird kurz nach der Bedeutung der Herkunft und nach möglichen prägenden Faktoren der Kindheit gefragt; 2) werden kurz Schule und Studium erwähnt, um dann Promotion, erste wissenschaftsgeschichtliche Kollektivbiographien und die Netzwerkbildung durch die Arbeitsgemeinschaft QUANTUM zu schildern; 3) werden der Einstieg in die Bielefelder Welt der Historischen Sozialwissenschaft, die Durchführung des Bremer Forschungsprojektes DABAG und die Gründung des Zentrums für Historische Sozialforschung beschrieben; 4) werden der Aufstieg in die Berliner Welt der Historischen Sozialwissenschaft, die Durchführung der kollektivbiographischen Großprojekte BIOKAND, BIOSOP und BIORAB, die Netzwerkbildung mit INTERQUANT, die Anfänge der Methodenlehre (QUANTKURS, ZHSF-Herbstseminar) und den Aufbau der Zeitschrift HSR dargestellt; 5) werden die Etablierung als ZHSF-Abteilungsleiter in der Kölner (Teil-)Welt der GESIS und die wichtigsten Tätigkeitsfelder des Autors beschrieben: Zeitschrift HSR, ZHSF-Methodenseminar, Parlamentarismus-, Eliten- und Biographieforschung, Parlamentarierportal BIOPARL und exemplarisch das Projekt zu den politischen Strafgefangenen in der DDR." (Autorenreferat)

"Development of post-communist parliamentarism in Kazakhstan and Romania: a comparative analysis. This study compares institutional development of legislative bodies in post-communist Romania and Kazakhstan. Despite having shared a communist past experience, Kazakhstan and Romania have followed a quite different path in their post-communist political order: Kazakhstan is unwillingly accepted the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 and peacefully declared its independence, while Romanian Revolution of 1989 was the most bloody of all in East Central Europe. However, in spite of their geographical remoteness, different cultural and historical backgrounds, various ethnic and religious compositions, as well as different economic profiles, Romania and Kazakhstan have shared some common elements of communist legacy and its side-effects during the post-communist development of political institutions. It does not necessarily mean that their respective experiences with communist rule and transition to democracy were the same. The parliamentary development in the two countries differs from each other, both in terms of stability and the level of institutionalization. The goal of this article is twofold. First and foremost aim of the paper is to explain parliamentary development in post-communist Romania and Kazakhstan from historical point of view and to identify what contributes to changes and different outcomes in legislatures of the respective countries. Second goal is to compare two parliaments and identify similarities and differences with making some inferences about the strength of legislatures compared to each other and to other major political institutions."

In this paper, we propose a framework to integrate the identity of legislators in a politico-economic analysis of parliamentary oversight. Legislators decide about the effort they invest in oversight activities depending on their individual control costs and the level of electoral competition. We focus on public servants elected to parliament who face a conflict of interests but also have lower control costs due to their experience and information advantage. If held accountable, oversight becomes a relatively attractive activity for them to win votes. For German Laender, we find that the fraction of public servants in parliament is positively related to the number of submitted parliamentary interpellations. This result holds when instrumenting the fraction of public servants in parliament with its institutional determinants. Moreover, a mixed-member electoral system as well as a tighter race between the two biggest parties is related to more, a larger number of parties in parliament to less minor interpellations.

A country's form of government has important economic and political consequences, but the determinants that lead countries to choose either parliamentary or presidential systems are largely unexplored. This paper studies this choice by analyzing the factors that make countries switch from parliamentary to presidential systems (or vice versa). The analysis proceeds in two steps. First, we identify the survival probability of the existing form of government (drawing on a proportional hazard model). In our model, which is based on 169 countries, we find that geographical factors and former colonial status are important determinants of survival probability. Also, presidential systems are, ceteris paribus, more likely to survive than parliamentary ones. Second, given that a change has taken place, we identify the underlying reasons based on panel data logit models. We find that domestic political factors are more important than economic ones. The most important factors relate to intermediate internal armed conflict, sectarian political participation, degree of democratization, and party competition, as well as the extent to which knowledge resources are distributed among the members of society.

Der Autor untersucht in seinem Beitrag den Zusammenhang zwischen der institutionellen Struktur von politischen Systemen und der Qualität von Governance, die in einer demokratischen Regierung, z. B. in Präsidialsystemen und im Parlamentarismus zu beobachten ist. Er bezieht sich bei seiner Analyse der Korruptionsursachen in verschiedenen politischen Systemen auf die Theorie des soziologischen Neo-Institutionalismus, demzufolge Institutionen das Akteursverhalten beeinflussen. Er verweist unter anderem auf die Forschungsarbeiten von James G. March und Johan P. Olsen, die versucht haben, den Einfluss von Institutionen auf korruptes Verhalten herauszuarbeiten. Ein korruptes Verhalten tritt demzufolge dann auf, wenn sich entweder die zuvor bestandene Sinngebungsfunktion der Institution ändert und in einer aggregativen Institution eine individualistische Nutzenmaximierung proklamiert wird, oder wenn sie diese Sinngebungsfunktion gänzlich verliert und dadurch Orientierungslosigkeit und Unsicherheit entstehen. Einige Versuche, die Effizienz von Regierungssystemen und die Qualität der Demokratie durch "Good Governance" zu fördern, können nach den Analysen des Autors paradoxerweise auch unintendierte Folgen haben, indem sie mehr Gelegenheiten für Korruption schaffen. (ICI)

Parliamentary system of government demands parliamentary competent parties. Dissension within parties can block the entire political system; the government cannot rely on its majority and fails in processing its proposals on the agenda of the parliament. From the analytical perspective, inquiry in dissension in the parliamentary majority is one of basic questions. The thesis deals with dissension at the theoretical level. Using the Czech Chamber of Deputies as an example, the thesis conceptualizes forms of dissension (a disapproval of a governmental proposal at the first reading as the absolute dissent). The thesis conducts voting unity tests of Czech political parties that forge government. According to the empirical inquiry, the dissension that leads to the disapproval of governmental proposals stems from the dissent within the political parties, not from the dissent among parties.

This paper discusses the potential contribution of parliamentary institutions and networks to the democratization of global economic governance. It places the analysis in the context of the larger debate on the democratic deficit of international economic institutions, in particular the WTO. On a theoretical level, the paper distinguishes different notions of legitimacy and democracy in order to identify which aspects of democratic legitimacy of global economic governance can be addressed through transnational parliamentarization. It is argued that national parliaments must react to the emergence of global economic governance in a multi-level system through new forms of transnational parliamentarization. In its empirical part, the paper assesses the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO (PCWTO) and the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB) as two examples of such transnational parliamentarization. Drawing on the theory of deliberative democracy the paper argues that the contribution of these settings to democratic global governance should not be measured on the basis of their formal decision-making power but with regard to their role as fora for transnational discourses and on their potential to empower national parliamentarians. Das Arbeitspapier untersucht den potentiellen Beitrag von parlamentarischen Institutionen und Netzwerken zur Demokratisierung des internationalen Wirtschaftssystems. Es stellt die Analyse in den Kontext der allgemeinen Debatte über das Demokratiedefizit der globalen Wirtschaftsinstitutionen, insbesondere der WTO. Auf theoretischer Ebene unterscheidet das Arbeitspapier verschiedene Konzeptionen von Legitimität und Demokratie, um herauszufiltern, welche Anforderungen demokratischer Legitimität durch Prozesse der transnationalen Parlamentarisierung erfüllt werden können. Das Arbeitspapier argumentiert, dass nationale Parlamente auf die Emergenz globaler Wirtschaftsinstitutionen im Mehrebenensystem durch neue Formen der transnationalen Parlamentarisierung reagieren müssen. In seinem empirischen Teil bewertet das Arbeitspapier die Parlamentarische Konferenz zur WTO (Parliamentary Conference on the WTO, PCWTO) und das Parlamentarische Netzwerk zur Weltbank (Parliamentary Network on the World Bank, PNoWB) als zwei Beispiele einer derartigen transnationalen Parlamentarisierung. Unter Rückgriff auf die Theorie der deliberativen Demokratie wird argumentiert, dass der Beitrag dieser Einrichtungen zu demokratischer gobal governance nicht anhand ihrer formalen Entscheidungsbefugnisse gemessen werden sollte, sondern mit Blick auf ihre Rolle als Foren für transnationale Diskurse und ihr Potential nationale Parlamentarier zu stärken.

The literature on institutional determinants of intra-state violence commonly asserts that the presence of multiple political parties reduces the conflict potential within countries; by co-opting oppositional groups into an institutionalized political arena, dissidents would prefer parliamentarian means over violent rebellion in order to pursue their goals. The present paper shows that this proposition does not necessarily hold for fuel-abundant states. In the presence of natural resources such as oil or gas, countries exhibiting numerous non-competitive parties are actually more susceptible to internal conflict. Fortified by the establishment of legal political parties, regime opponents succumb more easily to the prospects of securing resource revenues, adopting rapacious behaviour. Fuel-related internal grievances as well as the opposition's disaffection over the lack of effective political leverage and government use of political violence provide a seemingly legitimate motive for armed rebellion. Moreover, financial means for insurgency are raised by extortion or the possibility of selling future exploitation rights to natural resources. Logit models using different estimation techniques and alternative operationalizations corroborate the proposed claim. The argumentation is further illustrated by a depiction of the Colombian case. Studien über die institutionellen Determinanten innerstaatlicher Gewalt legen nahe, dass die Präsenz multipler politischer Parteien das Konfliktpotential innerhalb der Länder reduziert. Es wird behauptet, dass Parteien oppositionelle Gruppierungen in eine institutionalisierte politische Arena kooptieren und somit anstatt der Anwendung gewaltsamer Rebellion die Verfolgung parlamentarischer Maßnahmen fördern. Der vorliegende Artikel zeigt, dass diese Prämisse nicht für ressourcenreiche Staaten gilt. Bei gleichzeitigem Vorhandensein von natürlichen Ressourcen wie Öl oder Gas und nicht-kompetitiver Multiparteiensysteme steigt die innerstaatliche Konfliktwahrscheinlichkeit. Gestärkt durch die Einrichtung legaler politischer Parteien und geleitet von der Absicht, die Ressourcengewinne zu kontrollieren, greifen Dissidenten eher zu Waffen. Ressourcenbezogene Missstände sowie die Unzufriedenheit Oppositioneller über mangelnde politische Einflussmöglichkeiten und die Anwendung staatlicher Unterdrückung liefern dabei offenbar legitime Motive für gewaltsame Aktionen. Zudem wird in vielen Fällen die Finanzierung rebellischer Aufstände z. B. durch ressourcenbedingte Erpressung ermöglicht. Ergebnisse von Logit-Modellen unter Anwendung unterschiedlicher Schätzverfahren und alternativer Operationalisierungen unterstreichen die vorgetragene Argumentation, welche durch die Schilderung des kolumbianischen Falls zusätzlich veranschaulicht wird.

In democracies throughout the world, intra-party factions manifest themselves in parties and governments. Formal and informal institutions have, however, proved crucial in managing factionalism. This is especially true in Thailand's emerging parliamentary democracy where the management of factionalism has become a major objective for Thai parties. This study explores factions and factionalism as well as how different types of parties try to manage intra-party dissension especially in the case of Thailand. The findings suggest that management style tends to be a function of a party's organization, with parties which practice a collegial style tending to be the more successful in controlling intra-party cliques over time. At the same time, the most important tools which party leaderships can use to control factions are the careful use of constitutional provisions and manipulation of party finance.

The article outlines the historical contours of the peculiar and long-lived conception of sovereignty in the English tradition: the ‘King-in-Parliament’. After fixing its duration from at least the 15th (John Fortescue) to the early 20th century (Albert V. Dicey), the article traces its development in the 16th century (Henry VIII, Christopher Saint German, Thomas Smith), the attack on it in the 17th century by royalist policies on the one hand, and by republican policies on the other, its classic formulation as a mixed constitution by William Blackstone in the 18th century, and the critique of David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and Walter Bagehot. The conclusions concern the specifics of the English/British political culture and the need to analyze political culture in a time frame of longue durée., Ziel des Aufsatzes ist es, die historischen Konturen der eigentümlichen und langlebigen englischen Souveränitätskonzeption des 'King-in-Parliament' nachzuzeichnen, beginnend mit John Fortescue im 15. Jahrhundert bis hin zu Albert V. Dicey im frühen 20. Jahrhundert. Die Entwicklung der Konzeption im 16. Jahrhundert wird gezeigt (Henry VIII., Christopher Saint German, Thomas Smith), wie auch, dass sie im 17. Jahrhundert von zwei Seiten her unter Druck gerät: durch royalistische und durch republikanische Strömungen. Ihre klassische Formulierung als Mischverfassung im 18. Jahrhundert durch William Blackstone wird rekonstruiert, und die Kritik von David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, John S. Mill und Walter Bagehot wird skizziert. Die Schlussfolgerungen betreffen einerseits Spezifika der englisch-britischen politischen Kultur und andererseits die Notwendigkeit, politische Kultur in einem Zeitrahmen der longue durée zu analysieren.

Quentin Skinners Vorschlag, Hobbes’ Leviathan wie eine Parlamentsrede zu lesen, bildet hier den Ausgangspunkt für eine Begriffsgeschichte, die die prozedurale Debatte des Parlaments zum Modell des Begriffsstreits nimmt. Die Leitidee besteht in der gegenseitigen Bedingtheit zwischen Begriffen und Debatten in der parlamentarischen Politik. Aus dieser Sicht wird hier eine Skizze der möglichen Typen einer rhetorisch inspirierten Begriffsgeschichte entworfen. Von empirischen Studien einzelner Begriffe in Debatten über die Debatten um die Begriffe und Begriffe bestimmter Debattentypen gelangt man zu Begriffsdebatten und Debattenbegriffen. Aus einer lockeren Verbindung zwischen Debatten und Begriffen entsteht so ein Begriff-Debatten-Komplex, in dem beide Seiten ohne Verweis auf die andere nicht zu verstehen sind. Der Parlamentarismus im doppelten Sinne eines Regimes und einer rhetorischen politischen Kultur markiert aus dieser Sicht ein historisches Momentum im Streit um Begriffe, die zugleich Fragestellungen für eine Geschichte politischer Debatten und Begriffe eröffnet., Quentin Skinner's proposal to read Hobbes's Leviathan as if it would be a speech in parliament opens up a possibility for a form of conceptual history that takes the procedural style of the parliamentary debate as a paradigm for conceptual controversies. Its guiding idea is the inherent connection between concepts and debates in the parliamentary politics. From this perspective the author sketches a typology of the possible forms of a rhetorical history of concepts. Its range reaches from empirical studies on concepts in debates via debates on concepts and the concepts of debate types to concept debates and debate concepts. In other words, with this shift the loose links between debates and concepts are replaced by a concept-debate complex, the poles of which are not intelligible without a reference to each other. Parliamentarism in the double sense of a regime and a rhetorical political culture marks a historical momentum in this struggle on concepts and opens up at the same time a research question for the history of political debates and concepts.

As a result of the prevailing governance structure, economic policy in democracies usually suffers from specific deficiencies. Among these are the predominance of distributive over efficiency objectives, the neglect of long-run effects, and the lack of or biased use of expert knowledge in the political decision making process. These deficiencies can be attributed to a 'monopoly of democratic legitimacy' of the politicians and parties, an overloaded democratic delegation, the influence of interest groups, and the short-run incentives in the political process. The focus of this paper is on the reform of the governance structure of economic policy. It is suggested that a 'dual democratic legitimacy' should be introduced. A 'senate' which is independent of the political parties will be directly elected by the people. The senate firstly works as a second chamber in bicameralistic legislation, closely cooperating with consultative expert institutions. Secondly, the senate acts as a principal for any public institution outside of the parliament and the government, appointing the top personnel.

During the last decade unicameral proposals have been put forward in fourteen US states. In this paper we propose a theoretical framework casting some lights on the drawbacks of bicameral state legislatures and on the effects of the proposed constitutional reforms. In a setting where lawmakers interact with a lobby through a bargaining process and with voters by means of elections, we show that when time constraints are binding, bicameralism might lead to a decline in the legislator's bargaining power vis-à-vis the lobby and to a reduction in his electoral accountability. On the other hand, when the time constraint is not binding, bicameralism might improve electoral accountability. Hence, arguments suggesting that bicameralism is a panacea against the abuse of power by elected legislators should be taken with due caution and the proposed unicameral reforms in US states may indeed reduce corruption levels among elected representatives.

Die Dissertation als Teil der Parlamentarismusforschung untersucht mit den Bundestagsausschüssen einen wichtigen Teilaspekt des Bundestages, einem der zentralen Akteure im politischen System der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. In dieser Arbeit werden zwei sehr wichtige Bundestagsausschüsse vergleichend im Hinblick auf ihre Leistung analysiert, die beiden verglichenen Ausschüsse sind der Haushalts- und der Europaausschuss. Am Beginn werden politikwissenschaftliche Parlamentarismustheorien daraufhin untersucht, welche Funktionen und Bewertungsmaßstäbe Parlamentsausschüsse und insbesondere Bundestagsausschüsse in ihnen einnehmen. Dazu zeigt sich, dass es überzeugendes Modell zur Bewertung der Leistung von Parlamentsausschüssen bislang nicht vorliegt. Auf den vorhandenen Modellen aufbauend wird daher für den Bundestag in dieser Arbeit die Unterscheidung in die Ausprägungen der “Aktiv parlamentarischen Arbeit in Bundestagsausschüssen (Aktiver Ausschuss)“ sowie der “Reaktiv parlamentarischen Arbeit in Bundestagsausschüssen (Reaktiver Ausschuss)“ eingeführt und diese zusammenbetrachtet als ein “Neues Ausschussmodell“ für den Bundestag vorgeschlagen. Dieses neue Modell wird für den Vergleich der beiden Bundestagsausschüsse angewandt und dabei auch auf seine Tauglichkeit geprüft. Neben den theoretischen Überlegungen erfolgt als notwendige Grundlage auch eine Betrachtung der geschichtlichen Entwicklung von Parlamentsausschüssen in Deutschland, innerhalb des Deutschen Bundestages und der Entscheidungsstrukturen in allen Bundestagsausschüssen. Für die vergleichende Leistungsanalyse werden neben der wissenschaftlichen Literatur unter anderem auch Pressequellen, eigene Beobachtungen des Autors sowie eine empirische Datenerhebung mittels einer komplexen schriftlichen Befragung der ordentlichen Ausschussmitglieder des Haushalts- und des Europaausschusses, einem Interview sowie von Hintergrundgesprächen genutzt. Aufbauend auf diesen Quellen werden die beiden untersuchten Ausschüssen zunächst in zehn wesentlichen und vergleichbaren Kategorien dargestellt, analysiert und gegenübergestellt, bevor eine Bewertung der Vergleichsergebnisse in Anbetracht des “Neuen Ausschussmodells“ erfolgt und zum Abschluss auch mögliche Reformansätze diskutiert werden. Als Hauptergebnis der Arbeit zeigt sich, dass es deutliche Leistungsunterschiede zwischen den beiden verglichenen Bundestagsausschüssen gibt, die eine Vielzahl von Ursachen und Auswirkungen haben. Es hat sich auch gezeigt, dass das “Neue Ausschussmodell“ geeignet ist, diese Leistungsunterschiede zu erklären und Bundestagsausschüsse zu kategorisieren. Die in der Vergangenheit insgesamt dynamische Entwicklung von Bundestagsausschüssen spricht dafür, dass die in dieser Arbeit trotz der Leistungen der untersuchen Bundestagsausschüsse aufgezeigten Schwächen in Zukunft beseitigt werden können und damit auch die Relevanz des Bundestages im 21. Jahrhundert in diesem Teilaspekt sichergestellt werden kann., This dissertation examines one major aspect of the German Bundestag, the committee system, as part of the research about parliamentarism. The Bundestag is one of the central actors of the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany and committees represent a major component of the work component of the Bundestag. The two analysed committees are the Budget Committee and the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union. Theories of parliamentarism in political science are examined for the function and categories of parliamentary committees and especially Bundestag committees in them. This review shows that no convincing model for benchmark determination currently exists. Based on the existing models, a new model called “Neues Ausschussmodell” is proposed. It consists of two diverging sub models, one covering the active the other the reactive parliamentary committee work. The new proposed model is subsequently applied and tested. Besides the theoretical modelling, a summary of the historic development of parliamentary committees, especially in Germany, as well as their decision making structures is presented. The comparative analysis of the two committees uses not only scientific publications, but also press publication, field observations by the author as well as an empirical data investigation through a complex written survey of the ordinary members of the two committees, one interview and a number of background discussions. Based on those resources, the two committees are first analysed in ten comparative categories, before then the results are summarised within the new theoretical model and finally a number of possible reform steps, based on the given empirical evidence as well as the theoretical analysis and aimed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the two committees, are extensively discussed. The main results of this analysis are significant differences in the performance of the two committees, due to various reasons and causing various consequences. The proposed new theoretical model is adequate for this comparison and applicable to explain the performance differences, but can also be applied in a more general fashion to explain performance differences and to generally categorise parliamentary committees. The dynamic historic development of committees of the Bundestag supports the idea of future reforms eliminating the demonstrated weaknesses and securing the relevance of the German Bundestag in this aspect for the 21st century.

Gregor Kohlhammer Graz, Univ., Dipl.-Arb., 2009

In the conservative imaginary, at least in the cases of Constantin N. Brăiloiu and Alexandru N. Lahovary, France was not deemed a functioning political model (i.e., a political or constitutional regime) that Romania should have followed. Compared with the English political model (or rather with the Anglo-Saxon one, since the reference sometimes included the United States of America) and with the Belgian regime, France was certainly a less favoured option. However, without exception and despite all discursive artifice, in the perspective of these two politicians, who were evidently Francophile, both by education and by cultural affinities, France undeniably remained a landmark of civilization or administrative and economic efficiency, and sometimes a beacon of legal inspiration. It must be said that the latter perception was in no way related to Constantin N. Brăiloiu and Alexandru N. Lahovary’s conservative convictions. It was commonplace in the local cultural imaginary, which, regardless of one’s political, social or cultural affiliation, repeated the encomiastic mantra dedicated to imperial France, to whom the Romanians were convinced that they owed the existence of their nation. In fact, one should not overlook another typical belief of this political imaginary, which is illustrated in our case by Alexandru N. Lahovary: the Romanian politicians were persuaded that the ideals included in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen were exclusively due to the France of 1789.

Der vorliegende Aufsatz widmet sich dem Thema Regierungsbeständigkeit in parlamentarischen Demokratien. Ausgehend von der Feststellung, dass es eine große Varianz zwischen den Regierungsdauern einzelner Länder gibt, wird zunächst die bisherige Literatur zu diesem Thema speziell nach der verwendeten Methodik hin untersucht. Hierbei kristallisiert sich die Event History Analysis allgemein und das Cox-Modell im speziellen als besonders gewinnversprechend heraus. Mit Hilfe dieses Modells werden im Anschluss die für das Regierungsscheitern relevanten Attribute an Hand eines neuen Datensatzes, primär bestehend aus Regierungs- und Wahldaten für 40 Länder, identifiziert. Unter anderem lassen sich Einflüsse der Anzahl, der ideologischen Ausrichtung und der Polarisation von Parlamentsparteien und im Kabinett vertretenen Parteien ausmachen. Auch die Art der Regierung spielt für deren Beständigkeit eine Rolle. Erstmals wird vergleichend getestet ob Parlaments- oder Regierungscharakteristika einen größeren Einfluss auf die Regierungsdauer haben. This article deals with the question of governmental durability in parliamentary democracies. Based on the finding of a large variance between the governmental durations in different countries, the existing literature has been examined particularly with regard to the methodology used. Event history analysis in general and the Cox-model in particular produce the best results for such studies. Therefore, this approach is applied for the analysis of several indicators for government termination using a new data set on governments and elections consisting of 40 countries. The effects of the number, the ideological positions, and the polarization of the parties in parliament and of the cabinet members emerge as significant factors for determining government duration, along with the type of government in question. For the first time, an adequate test will be conducted to investigate whether the parliamentary or the governmental attributes have greater influence on the endurance of governments.

Die Dissertation als Teil der Parlamentarismusforschung untersucht mit den Bundestagsausschüssen einen wichtigen Teilaspekt des Bundestages, einem der zentralen Akteure im politischen System der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. In dieser Arbeit werden zwei sehr wichtige Bundestagsausschüsse vergleichend im Hinblick auf ihre Leistung analysiert, die beiden verglichenen Ausschüsse sind der Haushalts- und der Europaausschuss. Am Beginn werden politikwissenschaftliche Parlamentarismustheorien daraufhin untersucht, welche Funktionen und Bewertungsmaßstäbe Parlamentsausschüsse und insbesondere Bundestagsausschüsse in ihnen einnehmen. Dazu zeigt sich, dass es überzeugendes Modell zur Bewertung der Leistung von Parlamentsausschüssen bislang nicht vorliegt. Auf den vorhandenen Modellen aufbauend wird daher für den Bundestag in dieser Arbeit die Unterscheidung in die Ausprägungen der “Aktiv parlamentarischen Arbeit in Bundestagsausschüssen (Aktiver Ausschuss)“ sowie der “Reaktiv parlamentarischen Arbeit in Bundestagsausschüssen (Reaktiver Ausschuss)“ eingeführt und diese zusammenbetrachtet als ein “Neues Ausschussmodell“ für den Bundestag vorgeschlagen. Dieses neue Modell wird für den Vergleich der beiden Bundestagsausschüsse angewandt und dabei auch auf seine Tauglichkeit geprüft. Neben den theoretischen Überlegungen erfolgt als notwendige Grundlage auch eine Betrachtung der geschichtlichen Entwicklung von Parlamentsausschüssen in Deutschland, innerhalb des Deutschen Bundestages und der Entscheidungsstrukturen in allen Bundestagsausschüssen. Für die vergleichende Leistungsanalyse werden neben der wissenschaftlichen Literatur unter anderem auch Pressequellen, eigene Beobachtungen des Autors sowie eine empirische Datenerhebung mittels einer komplexen schriftlichen Befragung der ordentlichen Ausschussmitglieder des Haushalts- und des Europaausschusses, einem Interview sowie von Hintergrundgesprächen genutzt. Aufbauend auf diesen Quellen werden die beiden untersuchten Ausschüssen zunächst in zehn wesentlichen und vergleichbaren Kategorien dargestellt, analysiert und gegenübergestellt, bevor eine Bewertung der Vergleichsergebnisse in Anbetracht des “Neuen Ausschussmodells“ erfolgt und zum Abschluss auch mögliche Reformansätze diskutiert werden. Als Hauptergebnis der Arbeit zeigt sich, dass es deutliche Leistungsunterschiede zwischen den beiden verglichenen Bundestagsausschüssen gibt, die eine Vielzahl von Ursachen und Auswirkungen haben. Es hat sich auch gezeigt, dass das “Neue Ausschussmodell“ geeignet ist, diese Leistungsunterschiede zu erklären und Bundestagsausschüsse zu kategorisieren. Die in der Vergangenheit insgesamt dynamische Entwicklung von Bundestagsausschüssen spricht dafür, dass die in dieser Arbeit trotz der Leistungen der untersuchen Bundestagsausschüsse aufgezeigten Schwächen in Zukunft beseitigt werden können und damit auch die Relevanz des Bundestages im 21. Jahrhundert in diesem Teilaspekt sichergestellt werden kann., This dissertation examines one major aspect of the German Bundestag, the committee system, as part of the research about parliamentarism. The Bundestag is one of the central actors of the political system of the Federal Republic of Germany and committees represent a major component of the work component of the Bundestag. The two analysed committees are the Budget Committee and the Committee on the Affairs of the European Union. Theories of parliamentarism in political science are examined for the function and categories of parliamentary committees and especially Bundestag committees in them. This review shows that no convincing model for benchmark determination currently exists. Based on the existing models, a new model called “Neues Ausschussmodell” is proposed. It consists of two diverging sub models, one covering the active the other the reactive parliamentary committee work. The new proposed model is subsequently applied and tested. Besides the theoretical modelling, a summary of the historic development of parliamentary committees, especially in Germany, as well as their decision making structures is presented. The comparative analysis of the two committees uses not only scientific publications, but also press publication, field observations by the author as well as an empirical data investigation through a complex written survey of the ordinary members of the two committees, one interview and a number of background discussions. Based on those resources, the two committees are first analysed in ten comparative categories, before then the results are summarised within the new theoretical model and finally a number of possible reform steps, based on the given empirical evidence as well as the theoretical analysis and aimed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the two committees, are extensively discussed. The main results of this analysis are significant differences in the performance of the two committees, due to various reasons and causing various consequences. The proposed new theoretical model is adequate for this comparison and applicable to explain the performance differences, but can also be applied in a more general fashion to explain performance differences and to generally categorise parliamentary committees. The dynamic historic development of committees of the Bundestag supports the idea of future reforms eliminating the demonstrated weaknesses and securing the relevance of the German Bundestag in this aspect for the 21st century.

'Der Autor bezieht sich auf Fernand Braudel, der darauf hingewiesen hat, dass politische Geschichte nicht notwendig Ereignisgeschichte ist. Es gibt eine Geschichte der langen Zeitverläufe, der longue duree, in denen sich demographische Veränderungen und der Umbau von Sozialstrukturen und Wirtschaftsformen erst nach langer Zeit manifestieren. Im Rahmen dieses Ansatzes geht der Autor der Frage nach der Bedeutung regionaler Strukturen für die Herausbildung politischer Kulturen an Hand eines historischen Vergleichs von Deutschland und Frankreich nach. Das Verhältnis von Region und Politik in diesen beiden Ländern wird von den Anfangen der parlamentarischen Massendemokratie in den Revolutionen von 1848/49 bis in die Gegenwart verfolgt. Die Revolutionsjahre sind eine critical juncture, in der sich soziopolitische Allianzen und Konfliktlinien formierten, die für lange Zeit Bestand hatten und die sich erst in den letzten Jahren der neuen Unübersichtlichkeit aufzulösen beginnen. Die Analyse bestätigt insgesamt Schumpeters Diktum, dass soziale Strukturen, Typen und Verhaltensweisen Münzen sind, die nicht leicht schmelzen.' (Autorenreferat)

'Der Autor analysiert in einem Langzeitvergleich der Parlamentarier in Frankreich und Deutschland den Wandel der parlamentarischen Repräsentation und seine Auswirkungen auf die politischen Systeme beider Länder. Dabei zeigen sich bis zum Zweiten Weltkrieg deutliche Unterschiede in den Modi parlamentarischer Repräsentation mit einer kontinuierlichen Dominanz des Intermediärs in Frankreich und einem massiven Bedeutungsgewinn des Funktionärs in Deutschland. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wird der öffentliche Dienst in beiden Ländern zur Hauptquelle parlamentarischer Rekrutierung. Trotz fortschreitender Uniformität in der Rekrutierung von Abgeordneten für die Nationalparlamente bestehen gerade in Frankreich auch nach 1945 noch wesentliche Besonderheiten fort, so der niedrige Frauenanteil und das cumul des mandats.' (Autorenreferat)

Dans les débats parlementaires roumains de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, la Belgique joue un rôle très intéressant, moins comme élément central de la comparaison: sur ce terrain, la France, "soeur la tine", et l'Angleterre, "mère" du constitutionnalisme, peuvent difficilement être contestées. La Belgique représente surtout un modèle important pour la Roumanie dans ses essais de développement et de modernisation, en un mot, d'occidentalisation. Cette contribution examine les raisons de la comparaison avec la Belgique dans un dossier de développement institutionnel majeur, à savoir le réseau des chemins de fer. La Belgique est un des instruments les plus utiles dans les arguments des députés roumains afin de soutenir leurs différentes positions sur la construction des chemins de fer. La comparaison avec la Belgique aide les parlementaires à donner expression à l'héritage saint-simonien, le plus souvent mâtiné de positivisme, qui fait figure d' "idéologie d'accompagnement" de l'aménagement territorial et urbain pendant la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle roumain.