German Elections Tomorrow

Via the BBC:  Germany election: Rival parties in last push for votes

Germany’s rival parties are in their final day of campaigning ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary elections.

Polls suggest Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats will win the biggest share of the vote.

But her current coalition partners, the Free Democrats, may not pass the 5% threshold for winning seats in parliament.

If so, Mrs Merkel may have to consider a coalition with her main rival Peer Steinbrueck’s Social Democrats.

The video that explains the German electoral system is pretty bad (unhelpful and even incorrect in the way it describes the way seats are allocated—or, more accurately, alludes to the way seats are allocated—there really isn’t much of a an explanation).    Germany’s mixed member proportional system is far better explained here with notes on recent reforms here.  

The video on coalitions using cake is a bit better (if anything the cakes are kind of amusing), although for a good explanation for why we shouldn’t call a CDU/CSU + SPD coalition “grand” anymore see Matthew Shugart.

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Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Ebenezer_Arvigenius says:

    Well good luck to anyone who really wants to understand that system. It took us three years to come up with a constitutional version of a needed small change :D.