The following is a quick overview of the German Government's organizational structure.
The German government is organized into a parliamentary system. The Federal Chancellor or Bundeskanzler,
Angela Merkel, acts as the head of government and wields executive power. Executive power basically means the
responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the government and the implementation and execution of law.
Federal legislative power is controlled by the government and the two chambers of parliament; the Bundestag,
lower house, and the Bundesrat, upper house.
The Bundestag, referred to as the lower house, is the German parliament and is presided over by the President of
the Parliament, Norbert Lammert. The members of the Bundestag are the only officials in the German government
elected by the public. The Bundestag elects the Federal Chancellor and oversees the operations of the government.
The Bundestag considers the legislative function it’s most important responsibility, concentrating much of its
energy on assessing and amending the government's legislative program.
Party politics is much stronger in Germany than it is in Canada. Many members can be elected to the German
parliament while having little to no contact with their constituents, thus most are elected due to party loyalties
rather than stands on individual issues. Many constituent matters are not dealt with directly by the members but
through a petition system which in-turn is administered by the petition committee. Much of
the Bundestag’s operations are performed by committees and working groups with members appointed from different
parties.
The Bundesrat, referred to as the upper house, represents the 16 federal states of Germany and acts much like a
senate. Each state has a cabinet who appoints a minister-president as their chief representative. The number of
votes an individual state has is largely dictated by the population of that state and the cabinet of each state
can appoint a number of representatives equal to the number of their votes. The cabinet has the option of
replacing representatives as they wish.
Even though the Bundesrat is called the upper house it is subordinate to the Bundestag. The Federal government
must present all legislative initiatives to the Bundesrat first who then pass them to the Bundestag. The Bundesrat
must approve all legislation affecting policy areas for which the Basic Law grants the state concurrent powers and
for which the state must administer federal regulations. The Bundesrat has an absolute veto over these initiatives
and those dealing with constitutional change.
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