The German Government

Today, the German government is a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic with a multi-party system. Its constitution protects individual liberty by preserving many human rights, and divides power between the federal and state governments, as well as between the legislature, judiciary, and executive branch, much like the government of the United States. This incarnation of the German government was created after the Second World War as a revision of the Weimar Republic, whose shortcomings led to the ascent of Hitler and the rise of the Third Reich.

The Federal Chancellor, a position similar to the Prime Minister in other governments, serves as the head of the German government, which can exercise both executive and legislative power. The legislature is divided into two chambers, the Bundesrat and the Bundestag, similar to the Upper and Lower Houses of the Senate and the Congress in the US, respectively, each with a separate minister. The Bundestag, whose members are the only officials directly elected by German citizens, considers legislation to be its most important function. The Bundestag in turn elects the chancellor and oversees the passage of legislation proposed by the executive branch. On the other hand, the Bundesrat is composed of state cabinet members who are not elected by the German citizenry or members of the Bundestag, but are cabinet members appointed by German states who can be replaced at any time.

The Judiciary of the German government functions independently from its legislature and executive branch. The German judiciary ensures that citizens have equal rights under the law, and that legislature can be challenged in court. While federal laws outline the structure and procedure of the courts, they are controlled both on a state and federal level. The adjudication of German cases is based on a system similar to Roman law, in which lawyers and judges look to the codes of legislature, not to precedent, in order to determine the appropriate ruling. As such, judges follow a specific career track to attain the title, and are not chosen from the ranks of practicing lawyers, as they are in the United States. There is a separate judiciary for each type of law”administrative, tax, labor, and social security”each with its own hierarchy. German citizens may also appeal to the Bundesverfassungsgericht, the Constitutional Court of Germany, when the state has violated their constitutional rights.

The most popular political party in Germany, the Christian Democratic Union, has dominated the legislature of the German government since 1949, along with the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Other prominent parties include the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, the Free Democratic Party, the Left party, The Greens, and the National Democratic Party of Germany.