Germany has several political parties of which only a few hold the majority of the seats in parliament. In the 1998 elections, seats in the Bundestag parliament were elected as follows: SPD 40.9% (298 seats), CDU 28.4% (198 seats), CSU 6.7% (47 seats), GRUNE 6.7% (47 seats), FDP 6.2% (43 seats), PDS 5.1% (36 seats), with the other political parties receiving around 1% of the vote, yet gaining no seats. The federal Executive President is Johannes Rau and the executive Federal Chancellor is Gerhard Schroder ; both are in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The president is elected for a five year term by a federal convention consisting of the federal Assembly and the delegation elected by the state parliaments. The Chancellor serves a four year term and is elected by an absolute majority of the Federal Assembly. The German Parliament has two chambers. The first is the Bundestag/Federal Diet and is comprised of 669 members elected to four year terms. The second is the Bundesrat/Federal Council which consists of 69 members who represent the state governments in Germany.
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University Of Arizona
lehrling@u.arizona.edu
Instructor: Prof. Kurzer
Section Teacher: Greg Dixon
Party of Democratic Socialism
The Republicans
German People's Union
Germany's Federal President
Germany's Federal Chancellor
Federal Diet
Federal Council
Germany's Constitution
German Federal Bank
UN Representation
Council on Foreign Relations
National Security/Military