Do Court Decisions and Redistribution Rules Have Consequences? Malapportionment of German Single-Member Electoral Districts

Bibliographic Data

ID6263172
AuthorsLouis Massicotte (corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume33
Issue3
Pages558-583
Publication date2024-07-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGerman Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0964-4008 • E-ISSN: 1743-8993
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09644008.2022.2070611
OpenAlexW4280523780
LanguageEN
References cited19

Important changes took place in Germany with regards to the delimitation of the single-member districts now used for electing the Bundestag and the legislatures of 13 Länder. This manuscript measures electoral malapportionment in all federal and state elections held since the 1940s and finds a significant (if uneven) trend towards more equal voting power for citizens. Why did this development take place? This manuscript argues that the impetus for reform came from the judiciary rather than from incumbent legislators. The latter had little individual or party interest for such changes but were faced with court decisions that demanded action. The legal framework was certainly a contributing factor, as evidenced by the creation in 1956 of a federal standing boundary commission, to report following each election, and the limitation of acceptable deviations from the average, a landmark move that was emulated by most Länder much later. Such developments are summarised, and significant reductions of the level of malapportionment are connected with judicial decisions and changes in redistribution rules

Commission · Economics · First-past-the-post voting · German · Law and economics · Legislature · Majority rule · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Redistribution (election · State (computer science · Voting · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Systems and Governance · Public Administration · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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