Alive and Kicking: Electoral Reform in Germany Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

Electoral systems should produce not a single but multiple desirable outcomes. They should ensure that (stable) governments can be formed by concentrating power and increase (or at least not decrease) the legitimacy of governments. Electoral systems should also produce parliaments that reflect and represent voters’ preferences as precisely as possible, while at the same time ensuring that geographical regions or societal groups are represented in parliament. Electoral systems should provide incentives for citizens to participate – and on top of all of that, they should be simple enough to be easily understood by them. In the specifically German context, they should also produce a parliament that is not (too) oversized. Needless to say, no electoral rules in the world can fulfil these partly contradictory expectations simultaneously and each of these demands can be disputed on normative grounds. By implication, this also applies to electoral reforms, as they might be designed to heal a particular deficiency, but might at the same time create another one – intentionally or unintentionally. From a technical point of view, electoral rules regulate and frequently constrain electoral participation as well as patterns of representation. A reform of electoral rules changes the rationale of parties and candidates, affects voters’ behaviour, and ultimately the composition of parliaments. Hence, one should not mindlessly tinker with electoral systems, especially in times in which the perceived integrity of the electoral process can no longer be taken for granted. Reforming an electoral system requires a thorough examination of what a reform would imply for the abovementioned goals and the (perceived) quality of an electoral system. Electoral systems define the rules of the game in a democracy and hence should generally remain stable. In Germany, however, many electoral reforms have been debated and some of them have been implemented in recent years. Electoral reforms are alive and kicking, one could say. Proposed or implemented reforms touch upon a range of issues including electoral formulas, voting age requirements, and the representation of women. Some of them were triggered by party politics, others by decisions of the