2021

What spurs or hampers contested district nominations for the Bundestag? Our new article provides some answers: Determinants for competitive conferences are a vacant candidacy, extra-parliamentary parties, and the involvement of several regional party units. Interestingly, there is a vast demand for more contested nominations among the selectorates. However, some ‘coronations’ are caused by early withdrawals of aspirants due to the leadership’s influence.

In "Government & Opposition", Benjamin Höhne analyses the AfD's intra-party democracy (IPD). On a broad empirical basis of the #BuKa2017 project as well as self-developed measurement methods, he shows that the AfD has a "competitive IPD". This is significantly more pronounced than in the other six parties in the Bundestag, even compared to the participation-oriented Greens.

The left-wing movement "Aufstehen" was a political experiment that received a lot of media attention in a relatively short period of time. In his article, Benjamin Höhne traces the development of the self-proclaimed movement, places it in the German party landscape and draws conclusions from its rapid failure for new "movement parties" in Germany.

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation, in cooperation with the IParl, has published a study on coalition negotiations. In addition to an analysis of the participant groups, interviews were conducted with leading party representatives. The result is a comprehensive review of coalition negotiations in general and the development of the relationship between party and parliamentary group in particular.