Zwischenruf - The political science podcast about parliament

As the second chamber, the German Bundesrat represents the interests of the federal states and has considerable influence on legislation. But how exactly does the interaction between the federal and state levels work, what are the party interests involved - and what characterises the Bundesrat as a special second chamber? In this episode, Franziska Carstensen, research associate at IParl and visiting professor at HWR Berlin, and Albert Funk, journalist and long-time observer of the Bundesrat, discuss the historical development, institutional categorisation and political dynamics of the Bundesrat. The focus will be on the origins of the Bundesrat, its influence on the legislative process and the extent to which the Bundesrat should be seen as a power factor or as a mere mediator between the federal and state governments.

How do the institutional foundations and modes of operation of parliamentary groups differ in different political systems? This episode focusses on a comparative look at parliamentary groups in Great Britain, France, the Czech Republic, Austria, Turkey and the European Union. The legalisation and resources of parliamentary groups, the financial and organisational framework of their work and their role in internal parliamentary power relations will be discussed.

Political groups are the engine of parliamentary democracy - this was the headline of the two-day conference organised by IParl and DVParl on 17 and 18 October 2024. Two days were devoted to political groups, their function and their institutional position in the political system. This and the next episode will feature audio recordings of the conference. The first episode is about parliamentary groups in the German Bundestag. How do they function? What is their legal status and how do they interact with their organisational environment? Fourteen experts provide answers to all these questions.

The authors of the IParl work were interviewed about their chapters in twelve individual episodes. In this podcast episode, all episodes can be listened to again in one go. From the question of who nominates the candidates, how they are nominated and who applies in the first place, to historical retrospectives and future-oriented reform discussions, a wide range of questions relating to the nomination of candidates for the Bundestag are discussed.

After 14 (sometimes turbulent) years of government by the Conservative "Tories", the United Kingdom voted for a change of government to the social democratic Labour Party in the House of Commons election on 4 July. The overwhelming success for the Social Democrats and their leader Keir Starmer was largely more of a reckoning with the Conservatives' chaotic government policy than a strong vote in favour of a change of direction. The right-wing populists around Nigel Farage were also able to achieve some respectable successes, at least at the ballot box. In this Extraordinary Session of the Interjection Podcast, we discuss the consequences of the last election for the UK with Melanie Sully.

In a parliamentary democracy, the stability of the political order depends largely on the fulfilment of parliamentary functions. Specifically, it is the members of parliament who have to fulfil these tasks. It depends on them whether there is sufficient expertise in parliament to guide and scrutinise political decisions. They must maintain a link with society in order to find appropriate solutions and reach compromises. They are accountable to the electorate and bear the ultimate democratic responsibility. In addition, the government is usually recruited from their ranks. Therefore, the selection of candidates for parliamentary seats is of paramount importance.

Chapter 11 is dedicated to responsiveness, in which Oscar W. Gabriel analyses whether the candidates selected by the parties are closer to their electorate in terms of their basic political convictions than to the electorate and which factors promote congruence in their orientations. According to the study, the parties - regardless of whether they were on the left or right of the spectrum - primarily favoured candidates who were closer to their electors than to the voters in terms of left-right self-assessment and support or rejection of socio-economically and socio-culturally liberal positions when nominating candidates in 2017. This applies regardless of framework conditions such as constellation format or degree of competition. If this congruence is a more important selection criterion than the candidates' agreement with the political principles of the party constituencies, the consequences for the representative function of parliament are obvious: MPs who are loyal to their party in terms of content make it easier to create political unity in parliament and the public and thus also political leadership. On the one hand, this is honoured by the electorate, as it ensures the ability to act. On the other hand, however, the prioritisation of internal selection criteria is quickly associated with the suspicion of a lack of proximity to citizens and the accusation of giving priority to party goals over voters' wishes in the event of conflict.

Since, as we have once again found, incumbents have the best starting conditions to be re-nominated by their party and elected to parliament, so-called denominations, i.e. the non-re-nomination or poor list placement of a member of parliament, raise eyebrows. The few cases in which this happens provide informative insights into the limits of the incumbency bonus. Daniel Hellmann explores these in chapter 10. If an MP's reputation has been damaged, there is an opportunity to challenge him or her. This requires suitable people who enjoy at least as high a reputation in the party as the MP they are running against. This occurs above all when there is a shortage of expected seats as a result of poor election results or constituency redrawing. Internal party rules such as regional or gender quotas have a similarly tightening effect. A re-appointment is also jeopardised if there are conflicts at the party base, which can also affect the nomination. Differences between the parties were also identified: While the Greens and the Left are more competitive and incumbent MPs were mainly challenged on the list, the Union parties and the SPD only saw denominations at constituency level at best. Their study not only sheds light on the limits of the incumbency bonus, but also on another aspect of the decline in party membership: If there is a lack of suitable challengers, they lose an instrument for retaining their MPs.

A special competitive constellation in candidate nomination arises when the previous member of the Bundestag does not run for a constituency candidacy again and there is therefore no candidate with an incumbency bonus. They are the subject of Chapter 9, in which Danny Schindler and Daniel Hellmann emphasise that they are not a special case with selection mechanisms that only apply there. However, the nomination in vacant constituencies creates a special starting position for the internal party decision-making process, including the invitation to compete. The new, open decision-making situation actually promotes competitiveness. In addition, the prospect of winning a direct mandate and the format of the general assembly also encourage competition within the group of vacant constituencies. However, in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the candidate selection process, it is essential to look at the events leading up to the nomination event. Depending on the constellation of candidates, the party leadership and the MP who is not running again can intervene in a variety of ways or hold back. The extent of grassroots participation also differs.

The forms of communication at the meetings are as diverse as the players in the candidate nomination process. Very little attention has been paid to them so far. Our detailed observations of 48 of the 96 state representative assemblies for the party lists of the CDU, CSU, SPD, FDP, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Die Linke and AfD allowed us to investigate the questions of who presents themselves why and how in order to win the votes of the voters, and to what extent they use questions and advocacy. In Chapter 8, Oliver Kannenberg reveals major party differences in terms of the use, scope and content of candidacy speeches and analyses the reasons for these differences. In those parties with less pre-structuring of the lists and therefore more competition for the individual seats, more is communicated by both the candidates and the selectors. If conclusions are to be drawn about internal party participation cultures, it is essential to pay attention to the interaction between the processes in the run-up to and at the nomination event itself.

Chapter 7 adds another piece of the puzzle to research on the nomination of Bundestag candidates by examining the influence of parliamentary party leaders from the perspective of the formally selecting electors for the first time. This reveals prima facie astonishing differences in the measurement of influence. Danny Schindler and Malte Cordes trace the reasons for this: Above all, the electors' own level of experience plays a significant role, as participation in previous nominations and employment in the policy-related field are associated with a lower attribution of influence. The complexity of the selection process, on the other hand, leads to a higher attribution of power. In order to be able to take this complexity and, above all, the paths of influence upstream of the nomination meeting into account, the pre-selection process is reconstructed in a specific case. On the basis of our interview and observation data, it is confirmed that the list formation is structurally and culturally a domain of the state party. In their political leadership groups, members of the Berlin parliamentary party leadership make up a small proportion at best - and even then, they must do their utmost to avoid the appearance of exerting influence in this role.

According to Anastasia Pyschny in Chapter 6, the de facto multi-stage selection and decision-making process is carried out by formal and informal actors involved in candidate selection, the electors and selectors. Before the former, as delegates or party members, formally elect the direct candidates and decide on the order of the list candidates at the constituency and state party events according to written rules, the selectors are the people who can influence the career and thus the result of the candidate selection in informal ways. According to our surveys, these are members of the local and district executive committees in the constituency, the district and state executive committees in the decisions on the state lists. Three types can be identified among them: "supporters", "tolerators" and "mediators". They differ in their behaviour and, accordingly, their influence and measurable effects on the internal quality of the nomination process can be identified.

Pia Berkhoff, Daniel Hellmann and Oliver Kannenberg explore the motivation to run for office and emphasise the interactions between available individual resources, the basic will and the opportunity that presents itself. These factors not only determine whether someone becomes an aspirant, i.e. whether they apply to stand for election in a constituency or on a state list at all, but also with what intentions. According to our findings from the surveys and interviews, three types of motives characterise this decision. A basic prerequisite for an aspired path into politics is the will to shape the party, however this may be directed, because without it, it will hardly be possible to gain a sufficient number of supporters within the party. Secondly, and just as important, albeit less often clearly expressed: aspirants run for office because of their own ambitions. These personal-individual motives can take various forms: An applicant may be positioning themselves for other positions within the party, actually aspiring to become a member of the Bundestag or simply wanting to gain experience. Thirdly, aspirants apply to stand as candidates if there would otherwise have been no candidates or too little competition in general. If parties want to actively create incentive structures in order to find enough suitable candidates, they could therefore focus primarily on the motives of creative drive and career ambition.

In Chapter 4, Daniel Hellmann and Sophie Kopsch outline the stages that lead from party member to member of the Bundestag and examine various characteristics that can help candidates to succeed: socio-demographic characteristics, commitment within the party and political offices as well as substantive agreement with the positions of their respective party. In order to be chosen as a Bundestag candidate, one must above all have proven oneself as a particularly active party member on the ground. This even applies to incumbent MPs who are seeking re-election. Although it is still true that the best prerequisite for becoming a candidate is to already be a member of parliament, mandate holders must also prove on an ongoing basis during the election period that they care about their constituency and their party base. Getting to know each other and building trust - that is the essence of the "ox tour", which becomes the most important criterion in the specific suitability test that is involved in nominating candidates.

The procedures for selecting personnel for parliaments in these phases of German history show breaks and lines of continuity, which Oliver Kannenberg analyses in Chapter 3. It becomes particularly clear how strong the influence of the electoral system is on the nomination of candidates: the absolute majority voting system that applied in the German Empire contributed to the parties developing a sophisticated system of electoral agreements over time. With the proclamation of the Weimar Republic and the associated switch to the proportional system with electoral lists, the influence of local and regional party organisations increased. A recurring motif in all four of the political systems examined here is the paramount importance of proving oneself within the party organisation. Both seniority within the party organisation and evidence of having completed a - naturally system-specific - ox tour were always important preconditions for promising nominations.

Malte Cordes describes and explains the combination of quantitative and qualitative survey methods used to answer the research questions as comprehensively as possible in Chapter 2, where you can read the details of how the parties' meetings were selected to nominate their candidates in the constituencies and for the state lists before the 2017 federal election, how standardised written surveys and partially standardised qualitative interviews with participants as well as passive participant observation were used and how the data was processed. The responses from over 10,000 party members in their roles as electors, selectors and aspirants now provide information on many facets of candidate nomination.

In a parliamentary democracy, the existence of the political order stands and falls with the fulfilment of parliamentary functions; and specifically, it is the members of parliament who have to do this. It depends on them whether there is sufficient expertise in parliament to (co-)steer or control politics, they must ensure a lively connection to society, struggle for appropriate solutions and find compromises. They are accountable to the electorate and bear the ultimate democratic responsibility. As a rule, the government is recruited from their ranks. The selection of candidates for parliamentary mandates is therefore of the utmost importance. In her opening chapter, Suzanne S. Schüttemeyer outlines why it is worth researching candidate selection, what we already know about it and how much is still lacking.

Otto von Bismarck is credited with the quote: "Laws are like sausages, it is better not to be there when they are made". In this extraordinary session of the Zwischenruf podcast, we do just that: we take a look at parliaments and legislation. Dr Szabó Zsolt shares his experiences of parliaments from around the world and tells us what parliaments - starting with their architecture, seating arrangements, their and their history - say about and societies. Daniel Hellmann discusses with the Hungarian political scientist how parliament buildings can be compared, from the classic semicircle to the Westminster model opposite, and what significance these "stages" of public debate have.

Borgen, House of Cards, West Wing, The Wire and many other series portray politicians, their work and their lives. Whether we're watching the Machiavellian Frank Underwood in House of Cards murder and threaten his way to the presidency or exploring with Birgitte Nyborg from Borgen how difficult it is to balance a private life with the office of Prime Minister, these portrayals influence how we perceive real politics. In this episode, we look at just that: Politics series and what they can and want to tell us. We talk to Dr Niko Switek, who has conducted research into political series, as well as Stefan Stuckmann, author of the series "Eichwald, MdB", which can be heard several times in this episode.

Who will be the next US President? This question will be answered by US voters in the General Election on 5 November 2024. Who will be on the ballot then will be decided in the primary election process, which begins on 15 January 2024 in Iowa. Citizens and party members in the states are called upon to choose their "frontrunner" in primaries and caucuses. Incumbent President Joe Biden, who is 81 years old, has already announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party in April 2023. The race is particularly interesting among the Republicans, where it is not yet clear who will represent the Grand Old Party on the ballot paper this year. Together with Dr Michael Kolkmann, we take a look at the pre-election process and the field of candidates.

It is said that football is the most beautiful pastime in the world. This seems to be especially true for the more than 80 MPs who are members of the FC Bundestag. Since 1961, a selection of MPs, including Joschka Fischer, Norbert Lammert, Andreas Scheuer and Gerhard Schröder, have played in friendly matches against amateur teams from all over Germany. The club sees itself as an "ambassador for Parliament", for example at the annual European Parliamentary Championships. In this episode, we talk to team manager Philipp Kahlert about this and many other topics relating to the FC Bundestag. In addition, we have collected sound bites from a friendly match, fresh from the pitch at the Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark in Berlin.

Africa is a continent that brings together countless ethnicities, religions and cultures in more than 50 countries. When talking about political systems 'in Africa', there is often a lack of differentiation. This is exactly what we do in this podcast episode by focussing on East Africa and more specifically on Kenya, which can be described as one of the most democratic countries in the region. With Dr Annette Schwandner, Head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's International Office in Kenya, and Dr Danny Schindler, Director of IParl, we shed light on the political culture and recent developments in Kenya after 60 years of independence and one year of government by President William Ruto.

In the third round of voting, Kai Wegner, the new Governing Mayor of Berlin, finally made it. After two failed attempts, he was elected in the Berlin House of Representatives at the end of April with 86 votes, out of 86 MPs in the governing coalition of CDU and SPD. All's well that ends well? Not at all, because the national outcry was huge when the AfD parliamentary group announced that they had helped Wegner into office with their votes. Memories of the Kemmerich case in Thuringia quickly came to mind. There was a lot of discussion about firewalls and populist methods, but little about the election process that allowed these issues to arise in the first place. After all, the election of heads of government in Germany is generally held in secret, unlike substantive votes in parliament, for example. Why is this the case and does it have to be? We spoke to Prof Frank Decker about this. Frank Decker is a professor of political science and sociology at the University of Bonn and a member of the scientific advisory board of the Progressive Centre in Berlin. His research interests include the renewal and reform of democracies.

Never before have so many young MPs sat in the German Bundestag as in the current 20th parliamentary term. For most of them, it is their first parliamentary mandate ever. What challenges do young MPs face when they enter the Bundestag for the first time? And what changes do they want to bring about? In this episode of Zwischenruf, we talk about this with Bundestag member Catarina dos Santos, the youngest member of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group since 2021. We also welcome journalist Livia Gerster as a guest, who has spoken to numerous new MPs about their experiences and ideas and summarised them in her book "Die Neuen. A generation wants to be in power".

Great Britain is the mother country of parliamentarianism and yet referendums, i.e. forms of direct democracy, take place there time and again. In 2011 there was a vote on a change to the electoral system, in 2014 on Scottish independence and in 2016 on Brexit. With Melanie Sully, British-born and director of the Austrian Go-Governance Institute, we discuss the state of parliamentarianism in the UK and how representative and direct democracy can go hand in hand.

Long queues, closed polling stations and a number of other problems overshadowed the elections that took place in Berlin on 26 September 2021. On 12 February 2023, just under a year and a half later, the parliamentary and district assembly elections will have to be repeated. In this episode, we catch up with Stephan Bröchler, Professor of Political and Administrative Sciences at HWR Berlin and Berlin's Chief Electoral Officer since September 2022, and Daniel Hellmann, election expert at IParl, to find out what will happen on election day and afterwards. We also discuss what exactly needs to be done better in the future to prevent a similar accumulation of election mishaps from happening again.

The Science and Democracy Foundation is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. To mark this festive occasion, companions and associates of the Foundation and its institutions were invited to the micro-front to talk about the founder, Eberhard-Schütt-Wetschky, his decades of work in political science, which he saw as a "partner of democracy", his motives and characteristics.

In addition to personal insights, this episode offers a brief overview of the topics that were particularly important to Eberhard Schütt-Wetschky. How do parliaments interact with the government and political parties? Who decides, who makes decisions? And what is the role of political science? SWuD Managing Director Dr Astrid Kuhn, Deputy Chairman Dr Sebastian Galka and Prof. Dr Joachim Krause, Director of the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University, were invited as guests. We were also able to interview Prof. Dr Suzanne S. Schüttemeyer, founding director of the Institute for Parliamentarism Research, about common milestones with Eberhard Schütt-Wetschky. The four interviews, collaged together below, form a colourful bouquet of memories of a man who dedicated his life to the realistic study of politics and its problems, and who will be specially commemorated on the occasion of his 85th birthday on 24 October 2022.

Following the parliamentary elections in Sweden on 11 September, Scandinavia's most populous country is facing a challenging government formation: The incumbent Prime Minister Andersson has resigned; the ball is now in the court of the conservative camp led by Ulf Kristersson. Kevin W. Settles discusses with Swedish author and journalist Lotta Lundberg (Svenska Dagbladet, among others) and Dr Tobias Etzold, political scientist and lecturer at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, how he is integrating the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats, who are the second-best party for the first time, into his government formation and what consequences this parliamentary election will have for Sweden and Europe.

It is a truism that the coronavirus pandemic, including working from home and temporary contact restrictions, has become a driving force for digitalisation processes in many areas of life. In this episode, Oliver Kannenberg discusses how digitalisation is increasingly influencing political processes in parliament and political parties with political scientist Dr Isabelle Borucki (University of Siegen) and member of parliament Dr Paula Piechotta (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen). They offer interesting insights into the potential and reality of the digitalisation of politics from a scientific and practical perspective.

The next president of the Fifth Republic will be elected in France on 10 and 24 April. The polls currently show the incumbent Emmanuel Macron in the lead, but the battle for second place is still very much wide open. In this interview, we explain why the presidency is so important in France and talk about the main candidates. We also analyse the various options in the likely run-off. In this episode, we talk to Thomas Wieder (former head of Le Monde's political desk in Paris and Le Monde's correspondent in Berlin since 2016) and Anastasia Pyschny (IParl employee and France expert) about the upcoming presidential elections. Oliver Kannenberg moderated the interview.

What do Dieter Nuhr, Sibel Kekilli and Roland Kaiser have in common? They will be part of the Federal Assembly for the election of the Federal President on 13 February. It is already almost certain that Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be elected for a second term in office. Regardless of the outcome, the Federal Assembly is also an interesting subject of study from a political science perspective. In any case, the specific election results of the candidates Steinmeier, Gerhard Trabert and Max Otte can be attributed a symbolic significance. In our second extraordinary session, Dr Benjamin Höhne and Oliver Kannenberg explain the institution of the Federal Assembly and talk about the functions of the Federal President, the Max Otte case and how 1472 people should conduct an election under coronavirus conditions.

Debates about electoral law have been occupying politicians and academics in Germany for years. One reason for this has repeatedly been the size of the Bundestag, which now has 736 members and can bear the title of "largest democratic parliament". The fact that it has come to this is not due to one cause and cannot be easily remedied. In the meantime, the reform proposals for a fair and comprehensible organisation of the electoral system can fill their own library shelves. In the first extraordinary meeting, we want to find a way through the jungle of electoral law. To this end, Oliver Kannenberg talks to Daniel Hellmann, the election expert at IParl, about the development of electoral law, numerous court decisions and the (lack of) political will for reform.

For a brief moment on election night, it still looked like a tie between the CDU/CSU and the SPD. As the election progressed, it became clear that the Social Democrats had become the strongest party in the 2021 general election. Who was leading in the polls had changed several times in the preceding weeks and months. A long high for the CDU/CSU was followed by top results for the Greens; in the end, Olaf Scholz emerged as the laughing third. This begs the question: How well can opinion polls actually predict voting behaviour? What does the election decision depend on and what influence can opinion polls have on the election result? For this episode, we discussed these and many other questions with Richard Hilmer, Managing Director of the political and opinion research institute policy matters, and with Dr Lena Masch, who conducts research into emotions in politics and voting behaviour, among other things.

Who gets to have their say in the media and is given a platform to express their opinion publicly? This initially simple-sounding question has many facets and sometimes leads to heated debates. Terms such as false balancing, i.e. the deliberate presentation of opposing opinions that are not of equal value, characterise the discussion, as do the supposed capitalisation of parties and movements and criticism of the internal functional logic of media companies. How do media professionals ensure the quality of their reporting and why do talk shows often seem to feature the same people? We discussed these and other questions with our guests Paulina Fröhlich (Das Progressive Zentrum) and Günther Bannas (journalist). Together with Johannes Hillje, Paulina Fröhlich has written a study on the selection of guests by talk show editors and reports on her findings, among other things. Günther Bannas, former head of the FAZ capital city studio, describes the inside view of a renowned media organisation.

Coalition negotiations are decided by a small group of people in the back room? Contrary to this cliché, coalition negotiations are a prime example of complex negotiation processes involving various players at different levels. We spoke about this network of relationships with Brigitte Zypries, who can draw on extensive experience from various rounds of negotiations. She was Federal Minister of Justice from 2002 to 2009 and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy from 2017 to 2018. She was also a member of the German Bundestag from 2005 to 2017. In an interview with her and Dr Danny Schindler, research associate at IParl, we find out how coalition and exploratory talks have changed, why member participation is becoming increasingly important and what the quality of the red wine in the Konrad Adenauer House is like.

The election of the 20th German Bundestag is just a few weeks away. The nomination of candidates is currently in full swing in all parties. In this episode, we take this as an opportunity to take a closer look at the candidate line-up, which IParl has been working on intensively for over four years now. As part of the BuKa2017 project, we analysed who is standing for election, how and why. In other words: How do people get on the ballot paper? To get to the bottom of this question in its various facets, we speak to Anastasia Pyschny and Armand Zorn. We also discuss the fundamental question of what the candidate line-up tells us about the state of German party democracy.
Anastasia Pyschny has been involved in the BuKa2017 project from the very beginning and is writing her dissertation on the candidate line-up. Armand Zorn will tell us about his own personal experiences on the way to becoming an SPD direct candidate. He is running in the Frankfurt am Main I constituency and is supported by the Brand New Bundestag network.

On 6 June, the state parliament elections in Saxony-Anhalt will be the last major test of public opinion before the federal elections. The political relations between Magdeburg and Halle are interesting, and not just because of the impact on national politics. Voters in Saxony-Anhalt repeatedly present the parties there with coalition policy challenges. Both the so-called Magdeburg model, i.e. a red-green minority government tolerated by the Left Party, and the Kenya coalition of CDU, SPD and Greens, which has been in power since 2016, were the first of their kind in Germany. It is not for nothing that Saxony-Anhalt is often referred to as a democratic laboratory. Can the people of Saxony-Anhalt expect another coalition experiment after 6 June? How has the complex Kenya coalition fared over the past five years? Does Prime Minister Rainer Haseloff now enjoy the status of a state father and what role do the AfD and the Left Party play in the state? We discussed these questions and more with Isabel Hartung, state parliament correspondent for MDR, and Dr Benjamin Höhne (IParl, author of several studies on the state's party system and parliament).

The United States of America has had an eventful few weeks. The transition of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden was extraordinary in many respects and the images of the storming of the Capitol will probably remain in the minds of all political observers for a long time to come. At the same time, Trump's presidency and the election campaign between Democrats and Republicans have revealed how deeply divided society in the USA has become. It is no coincidence that Joe Biden has made it a central concern of his presidency to bring the two polarised political camps back together. Many questions remain unanswered: What is the state of the major political parties? What role does the wafer-thin Democratic majority in Congress play? And: What plans does Joe Biden want to push through before the important midterm elections? In our discussion, we explored these and other questions with our guests Alica Jung, cross-media correspondent for the ZDF studio in Washington, and Dr Michael Kolkmann, lecturer for special tasks at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

Voting by post is convenient and easy. It is therefore not surprising that the proportion of postal voters in federal elections is steadily increasing. In view of the pandemic situation, a further increase is not only to be expected for the 2021 super election year, but is even desirable under these conditions. In the last US presidential election, Donald Trump, parts of the Republican Party and the conservative media deliberately tried to discredit the postal vote. In Germany, too, such efforts can currently be recognised in right-wing populist circles. In this episode of Zwischenruf, we therefore ask the question: How problematic is postal voting really? In doing so, we will not only present the justified constitutional considerations, but also shed light on the accusations that postal voting can be manipulated. Plus: What does it mean for the organisation of elections when a pandemic requires distancing and hygiene rules? We spoke to Dr Petra Michaelis, Berlin's head of elections, and Daniel Hellmann (IParl) about this.

Parliamentary groups are essential for achieving a majority in the German Bundestag. The freedom of the individual Member of Parliament, which is enshrined in the Basic Law, contrasts with the unity often observed within parliamentary groups. What are parliamentary groups and how are they organised? How does the decision-making process take place and how much power does the group leadership really have? We talk about this with Nadine Schön (Member of the Bundestag and Deputy Chairwoman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group) and Dr Danny Schindler (IParl). He wrote his doctorate on the topic of parliamentary group leadership and is currently researching parliamentary group rules of procedure as part of the SOPiP project.

The FDP was the first party to be kicked out of the Bundestag and then return. In the years after 2013, it repositioned itself in the extra-parliamentary opposition and re-entered the Bundestag in 2017. With the withdrawal from the Jamaica talks, the election of Thomas Kemmerich as Thuringia's Minister President with votes from the AfD and debates about the party chairman's communication on Fridays for Future or the departure of General Secretary Linda Teuteberg, the party did not make it easy for itself in the 19th electoral term. How did the FDP manage to get back on its feet, what role does the Liberal youth organisation play and how can women in the FDP be better supported? We discussed these and many other topics with the former chairwoman of the Young Liberals, Ria Schröder, who is also a member of the FDP's national executive committee. This time, Dr Benjamin Höhne (IParl, author of several recent studies on the FDP) is our political science interlocutor.

The coronavirus pandemic remains the dominant topic in politics. The Bundestag has also been working in exceptional mode for six months now. The period from March to May was often dubbed the "finest hour of the executive". There was less room in the reporting for words of warning from the parliamentary opposition. This raises the question: Did government control take place at all? We discussed this with Dr Danyal Bayaz, member of the Bundestag from the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group, and Anastasia Pyschny from IParl. In this episode of "Zwischenruf", we talk about how parliamentary work in the home office works, which control mechanisms the opposition has used more intensively and why a committee of enquiry is being convened in the Wirecard case and not (yet) in the case of the corona restrictions, and much more.

Brexit presents British parliamentarism with enormous challenges. As if that wasn't enough, the coronavirus pandemic is hitting the UK with full force. The performance of the British government has been widely criticised in both cases. But what about the House of Commons? Prof Dr Roland Sturm (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Diana Zimmermann (ZDF London studio) discuss the state of British parliamentarianism in this episode, hosted by Malte Cordes. How have the Brexit negotiations changed the House of Commons and the UK's political landscape? And how is the current government dealing with coronavirus?

There are too few women in politics. But what can be done about it? Cécile Weidhofer (EAF Berlin) and Dr Benjamin Höhne (IParl) discuss this in this episode, hosted by Oliver Kannenberg. In this episode of Zwischenruf, you can find out why it matters what gender MPs are, what parity laws could achieve and what we can learn from the experiences of other countries such as France or Tunisia.

"The Bundestag is sometimes full, sometimes empty but always full of teachers" - an old joke about the composition of the Bundestag. Is this still true? And why are some professional groups more strongly represented in the Bundestag and others less so? In this first episode of Zwischenruf, Oliver Kannenberg talks to Dr Melanie Kintz (OvGU Magdeburg) and Malte Cordes (IParl) about the socio-structural composition of the German Bundestag.