Current News

Vote of the SPD in constituency 80 (Picture: IParl)

   |   by Matthias Koch

Similar to four years ago, the SPD in the electoral district of Berlin-Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf has broadly involved their grassroots membership during the candidate selection. Five applicants threw their hats into the ring for the candidacy. Since the member consultation was inconclusive, the decision came down to a showdown at the party delegate conference.

Congratulations for the successful election (Picture: SPD Bitburg-Prüm)

   |   by Matthias Koch

Who didn’t report on the scandal: F.A.Z, Süddeutsche, Der Spiegel... the SWR tweeted: „Candidate casting for the #SPD Bitburg-Prüm”. The story was even featured on the nightly television news. For the three small district associations of the Social Democratic Party which share Parliamentary Constituency No. 203 „Bitburg” in Rhineland-Palatinate, the media’s response came as a surprise. How has the extraordinary search for a candidate gone?

Official Opening of the IParl (Picture: IParl)

   |   by Matthias Koch

„The quality of democracy in a state depends on the care afforded democracy by the political parties in that state”. Professor Dr. Suzanne S. Schüttemeyer officially opened the Institute for Parliamentary Research (IParl) with this quote from Ernst Fraenkel. Concurrently, she presented the inaugural IParl research project: „Who selects whom, how and why?”

First team briefing of the academic oberservers for the project on candidate selection for the German Parliamentary Elections of 2017 (Picture: IParl)

   |   by Matthias Koch

Twenty-five members of the project team – primarily research associates, doctoral and master students as well as alumni of the Halle Political Science programme – convened on the 23rd of September 2016 for a full-day conference, to familiarize themselves with the content of the project as well as to plan field research.

Representatives' assembly from DIE LINKE Rhineland-Palatinate in Kaiserslautern (Picture: IParl)

   |   by Matthias Koch

The middle of September 2016 marked the beginning of field research for IParl’s project on candidate selection. Eleven members of our project team took part in four party conventions in Brandenburg, North-Rhine Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony.