{"id":36658,"date":"2024-06-27T13:38:47","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T11:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nomos.de\/electoral-law-reform-a-balancing-act-between-democracy-and-party-interests\/"},"modified":"2024-11-08T13:54:07","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T12:54:07","slug":"electoral-law-reform-a-balancing-act-between-democracy-and-party-interests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nomos.de\/en\/electoral-law-reform-a-balancing-act-between-democracy-and-party-interests\/","title":{"rendered":"Electoral law reform: A balancing act between democracy and party interests"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Electoral law reform: A balancing act between democracy and party interests<\/h2>\n <\/div>\n\n
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Dr Martin Stark on the challenges and opportunities of the new electoral law reform in Germany<\/h3>\n \n

As part of our democracy campaign “Quo vadis, democracy?”<\/em>, we are focussing on the current debate surrounding electoral law reform in Germany. The traffic light coalition has initiated far-reaching legislative changes to reduce the size of the oversized Bundestag parliament. But how effective are these measures? What are the political and legal challenges? We spoke about this with Dr Martin Stark, a proven expert in this field. His book “Die Quadratur des Wahlrechts” (“Squaring the Electoral Law”) sheds light on the complex relationships between democratic theory, constitutional law and the interests of political parties.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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In an interview<\/h3>\n

… Dr Stark explains the urgent need for electoral law reform in order to reduce the growing number of overhang mandates. The new reform of the traffic light coalition, in force since June 2023, aims for a fairer distribution of seats and takes better account of constituency majorities. He discusses the possible abolition of the basic mandate clause and its impact on smaller parties. Critical points such as the exclusion of directly elected constituency representatives and the reform of the two-vote electoral law are also examined.<\/p>\n