American Reacts to The Evolution of Germany's Political Spectrum

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Willkommen! My name is Sean Huggins, an American living in Germany. Watch as I learn about German culture and life in Europe!

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[steffent.]

FDP isn't constant because it was kicked out of the Bundestag a few years ago^^

[HappyBeezerStudios]

Yes, unlike in the US our liberal, green and socialist parties have representation.
And we don't do any elections for head of state or head of government. The parliament votes on those. Usually the chancellor comes from the biggest party in the governing coalition (because it is super rare that a single party gets a majority alone), but there is no law to mandate that.

[MichaEl-rhkv]

At first: Videos by Bertelsmann Foundation should be taken with a pinch of salt. The Bertelsmann Foundation, founded by Reinhard Mohn, holds the majority of the Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, one of the world's largest media conglomerates, which is controlled by the Mohn family - the foundation does actually not having any voting rights, but gets most of its money from the shares it holds. The Bertelsmann Foundation has won much influence as a think tank, but uses this influence also to pursue their own commercial and political interests. Since e.g. Bertelsmann makes much money within the education sector, the Bertelsmann Foundation tries to take influence in school policies. The Foundation also often supports the neoliberal ideology.
2nd : There are about 40 organizations considering themselves as political parties, but only some of them are actually taking an active part in any elections. Some are also only active on the local level, only participating in municipal politics (and elections). On the state and federal level parties have to win a certain share of votes (mostly 5%) to get any seats in parliament. Currently 6 parties hold seats in the federal parliament, 2 parties (CDU/CSU counted here as one) hold seats in all state parliaments, 2 in nearly all, 1 in about half, 5 in one or two state parliaments.

The multi-party system does for the most time prevent to much ideological extremism, even if sometimes some ideology succeeds in winning followers in all leading political groups (like the idea of socialization of big corporations after WW II or neoliberalism during the last decades of the 20th century). But only parties able to negotiate with others are allowed to govern, and that is a good thing for sure. At the same time real political differences are more visible, because anybody who does not like the direction their party moves to can find another one without having to bent themselves too much.

[iamtheusualguy]

The German system is consensus and coalition based - basically you elect small fragments that then form a bigger whole for the executive after the fact. The US system has pre-determined their coalitions into two large camps that you can't change. Coalition building in Germany can be more flexible since they are determined afterwards, not before an election but it does come at the cost of rather sticky negotiations and that you have to moderate at some point since you cannot go it alone. "too many cooks spoil the broth" is a common saying and it does apply to coalition building as well which is why the negotiations can take quite a bit of time. Some other European countries have a history of weak coalition governments that tend to fall apart fast at the slightest infighting.

The American way has the obvious con that you pre-moderate and everyone is kind of absorbed into a giant pre-set coalition of "Democrats" or "Republicans" from which you then have to choose. The Democratic black caucus for example cannot really coalition with the Republican equivalent, the moderate Democrats cannot really form a coalition with the more moderate Republicans.

The two main arguments for and against is usually that coalition governments the European way are too finicky and unstable if scandals or any other disagreements hit. The argument for is that coalition flexibilty enables more dialogue and possible constellations with smaller, "purist" fragments and instead of having one pre-determined pre-moderated way, you can form new alliances every time.

[cayreet]

Fun fact: normally, it's either the SPD or the CDU/CSU who provide the chancellor (as they are the parties with the most votes), so during the election campaigns, you only get to see the candidats from those parties discuss politics on stage on tV, but in 2021 (last election), the Green party was so strong in the ratings that their candidat was also included and we had three-way discussions.

[jensschroder]

what he forgot was the SSW party. With just under 56 000 votes and 0.1%, the party won one seat in the Bundestag. This was only possible because the SSW party is exempt from the 5% hurdle. The SSW represents the minority of Danes in Germany and has this special right. This is because the border between Danes and Germans used to be disputed. The agreement was a referendum on the territories and the requirement that the Danes have their own party in Germany.

Normally a party has to get 5% of the vote in Germany to be able to enter the Bundestag.
The CSU only appears in Bavaria and cannot therefore reach 5% in the entire federal territory. This party also takes advantage of a flaw in German electoral law. Seats for the CSU will be deducted from the CDU.
That's why the CSU protests every time the counting of votes is supposed to be simplified.

But the current government has finally managed to reform the electoral law against the CSU.

[karinland]

I don’t think a two party system should not be considered a democracy

[jancleve]

A two party system is barely a democracy.
Cina is a one party system ... but they still go through the motions and vote, sorry to say that but america is not so far away from that.
The declared goal of american dems or republicans is to "destroy" the other side, which is crazy.
Bipartisan support for any topic is nonexistend.
We started out as a two party system but the coalition status quo is the intended system for german politics.
The weimar constitution was written by optimists, the BRD constitution/Grundgesetz was written by post-Adolf pessimists.
It should prevent any party from gouverning alone and so far it worked but the AfD will put this system to the test...
Fun reaction... but Sean, you look super exausted/slightly wrecked maybe take a break or reduce to 4 vids a week.

[onlyagermanguy]

I find it quite Questionable to call either the AFD or die linke "farl left/far Right". Also very Questionable if the CDU is even still Conservative

[onlyagermanguy]

I would Categorize our Partys more like

Right winged = AFD
Center Right = CSU
Centrists =CDU, FDP
Center Left = SPD
Left = Die Linke, die Grünen

[Gandhiweasel]

If it works??? I say only : About 70jears of Peace in Europe!;)
Specially Germany, ...;)

[conjunctivius]

Most stupid asking. Would you be satisified with only two choices of ice cream???😂