American Reacts to German Government..

[@ivylasangrienta6093]

Coalitions are a big part of a lot of European countries parlaments. I can't imagine having a two party system.

[@whattheflyingfuck...]

especially when you are used to pick from 344 cereal aisles xD

[@fusssel7178]

tbh, a two party system ain't that much better than a one party system, if not even worse. In a one party system you don't have much power but they get stuff done, in a two party system you still don't have much power AND they doen't get stuff done as they usually backtrack on what the other party did, so they stagnate.

[@timgraser2785]

Agree on that. As a European it seems weird to just have two Partys. How could they reflect the whole political spectrum of diffrent interests? But the US has its own political culture. You gotta give it to them, they're still the longest lasting democracy which holds power to the current day.

[@kvtvlinn]

@@fusssel7178 You're basically advocating for autocracy or monarchy. NO THANK YOU! I'd rather have the power of the gov. segmented into parties and different ideologies that we get to vote on rather than having a one party rule with a dictator.

[@KaiHenningsen]

@@kvtvlinn They only said one or two-party systems are bad, that leaves three or more like in Germany, so I don't think he was arguing for what you think.

[@gerdahessel2268]

You vote for a political program. Persons can change, but the program of the party you voted for stays the same until a party congress may change it.

[@postron5649]

German here, I think the two most important differences from the US are: -Since the Chancellor is voted for by the Bundestag this insures that the government has their support. This means it is very hard to end up in a situation where the executive and the legislative are trying to block each other as often happens in the US after the midterm. In fact if a Chancellor manages to loose the support of the Bundestag he is expected to step down and can be replaced by a vote in the Bundestag even if he doesn't. -The fact that the parties have to form coalitions in order to get anything done means that the parties need to remain somewhat cordial with each other. After all there is no guarantee that your current coalition partner(s) might not loose a lot of seats in the next election which would mean that you need to find (a) new or additional partner(s) to remain part of the government. This means any party which wants to succeed in Germany has to be able to cooperate with most of the other major parties. This prevents a climate of mutual hatred like in the US and prevents German politics from polarizing the German society too much.

[@Luredreier]

You guys are losing out by not having minority governments. ;-)

[@bentmelholtandersen7057]

The advantage of a Coalitions is, that parties are 'forced' to work TOGETHER instead of, as in the USA, where to parties constantly seems to be fighting each other.

[@timgraser2785]

Espacially as a German, I love your videos. It cures my soul, seing sommeone - espeacially an american - handling political topics so well with such a high amount of self-reflection. In Europe we tend to just see the radical polarised, trumpish, poitically weird side of america, which leads us to feel as we would be "something better" because yet non of our parliaments have been stormed. But your videos proove, that indeed there are lots of sensefull people in the US and that we do have a lot in common. With these kind of Videos, you're contributing to bringing Europe and America closer together. Keep going!

[@lachlanmain6004]

Yes Joel is one of the good guys on here, really thoughtful and measured in his comments.

[@MoreJps]

thanks so much Tim!

[@ole7236]

By the way, Angela Merkel isn't chancellor any more, now we have Olaf Scholz from the SPD.

[@UmmonTheLight]

You're right, you don't have a direct vote in who is appointed in what position. But every major party has a chancellor candidate that is known and advertised. So you do know who the most important position goes to if your party gets the most votes and they manage to form a coalition. Other major posts, the ministers of certain resorts like finance, infrastructure or education, are usually a major part of the coalition negotiations between the parties. So you vote for the party program you prefer. There are also tons of smaller parties that usually don't cross the 5% hurdle. For example the pirate party which got close with a program around internet freedom, personal data security and general digital reform of the government. Sometimes there are parties formed around one singular issue so if that issue is the only thing you care about you might try voting for those. Finally the direct mandate is a way to get someone specific to a position where he/she can at least raise issues and take part in discussions. Here is where it's easiest for smaller parties to get seats by campaigning hard in one district around getting one person in to represent their point of view. That one voice is not that big of a deal so more people are willing to give it to smaller parties.

[@harrypadarri6349]

It might also be important to emphasise that at the end the members of the federal parliament or the state parliaments on the state level hold the power. It’s not like you have a chancellor and hope for the best. The chancellor needs the approval of a majority of the parliament.

[@Luredreier]

The single seat constituencies part of the MMP electoral system you guys have actually is a disadvantage for smaller parties. You guys only have 7 parties (okay *technically* 8 due to the CDU/CSU split) But due to your system you rarely have more then 2 parties actually forming a coalition. By contrast here in Norway we only have 169 seats in our parliament (compared to your gigantic one) yet we had 10 parties represented in the last election and our coalitions frequently is made up of 3-4 parties. The smallest party in our parliament had less then 5 000 voters but was still from a multi member constituency (we have 19 of them) I believe they where the third biggest party in one of our lowest population density electoral circles, so more seats pr voters then most other parts of our country) Yet our system has more proportionality then your system at both a regional and national level. Our smallest party this term got their seat due to a hospital closing in northern Norway leaving half of that constituency without a hospital when there's bad weather as the other two hospitals in that constituency requires passing mountains that's unpassable in bad weather both on the road and in the air. At a national level they had just 0,3% of the votes. But we also had 3 political parties just short of 4% and one just above. (Only 19 of the 169 seats have a electoral threshold at all, for those 19 seats that threshold is 4% giving a incentive for smaller parties to merge or at least not split up without discouraging bigger ones from splitting up since having more or less then 4% can make the difference between making it into a coalition or not) And for parties with a spread voter base it may make a big difference in the number of seats as those 19 seats are leveling seats. In our system you can reorder or even add/remove people from a party list. So if you vote for say the labour party but want to support a Cristian peoples party representative you can add someone from their list to the labour party list while removing someone from *their* list as a example. And people can be represented on multiple party lists by default. So our system is fairly flexible in that regard.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

@@Luredreier We had such a fractured parliament in the 1920s and 30s, a parliament that got nothing done because to many different factions had to somehow made work together. For that reason we have that 5% (or alternatively 3 direct seats) threshold for parties. To prevent too much splintering. Also don't forget the SSW, as party representing a national minority they don't need to hit either threshold. They just need enough votes to

[@johnloony68]

This is similar to the parliamentary systems in most European countries. The main political leader (the Prime Minister, or the Chancellor in Germany) is the one who has the support of the majority of Members of Parliament in the parliament/Congress.

[@PeterBuwen]

This is not only Germany. Mos european countries have similar constitutions; many parties and government formation through coalition are common in all Europe.

[@einflinkeswiesel2695]

the german constiturion is actually considered one of the best in the world because of that system

[@chrisclaim5112]

We are all a part of the European House.

[@fixzeichner5592]

The video is a little older. Angela Merkel is no longer Chancellor and the coalition that now governs consists of the SPD, the FDP and the Greens. The current chancellor's name is Olaf Scholz and he is a social democrat. Angela Merkel's party, the CDU, is now in opposition.

[@mina_en_suiza]

This actually has a ton of minor mistakes. E.g. it says "a party needs a least 5% of the popular vote to get a seat in government", when he should have said "parliament". There are exceptions to that rule, but this doesn't matter. What indeed matters, is the misuse of "government" instead of "parliament". Also: A coalition is not formed to pass certain legislation, as the video said. A coalition is required to form a government. In order to appoint a chancellor (who will then appoint the rest of the government), you need an overall majority in parliament. If you want to have a look at a really strange and unique political system, you should have a look at Switzerland. There's a very good (and, if I remember right, factually accurate) video on the "VisualPolitik EN" channel about it.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

8:47 If you’re aware of Parliamentary systems with a multi-party , you know the word ‘Coalition’. We have that in India too.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Indian elections are super interesting. The who system is gigantic with a nation of so many people.

[@franhunne8929]

4:38/39 "every five years a general election is run" Nope, every FOUR

[@DJone4one]

But we have a new chancellor since 8 december 2021. Olaf Scholz.

[@migueldesantiago7258]

and also an other coaliton, called "Ampel = traffic light" red-yellow-green = SPD-FDP-Grün.

[@habi0187]

The voting system is relatively complicated especially if you consider the different local voting rights. That's the reason that each German school kid learns for approximately one year in school how the system works. In the election we vote for parties that clearly stated whom they will chooses their chancellor. After an election normally the biggest party tires to form a coalition but they are not always successful. At the moment we have a coalition of three smaller parties leaving out the biggest. A major difference in our system is in my eyes that we don't have a President that can rule with orders bypassing the parliament. Additionally in our Federal Council the seats are given to the states based on their distribution of population and not the stupid each state has two seats so that votes in small states have 300 times the value of a vote in a bigger state (If I got the population figures of Wyoming and California correct.) All this measures insure that each government has the support of more than 50% of the voters and not that one guy who has millions of votes less that the other can run a country with very limited restrictions even if he has millions of votes less than the so called loser.

[@falkodxero4937]

"At the moment we have a coalition of three smaller parties leaving out the biggest" Not realy right, the SPD who is apointing the chancellor at the moment is the biggest party in the parliament at the moment

[@habi0187]

@@falkodxero4937 you are right i made a mistake. Sorry.

[@T0MT0Mmmmy]

The voting rights for the Bundestag does not differ from state to state.

[@habi0187]

@@T0MT0Mmmmy not for the Bundestag but for local representation like Kreistag there are differences.

[@SirHaviland]

Although this voting system has sometimes been called too anonymous because you indeed do only half the voting for a person (the First Vote - Erststimme) it still means that you can expect some amount of continuity because usually program goes before person. It's not as vulnerable to wannabe heroes like in the US because it's not about "The winner takes it all" but about equal representation of political opinions. Through all the shortcomings of our system I still think it's one of the better ones. Well, at least we know how to count ballots 😁

[@SirHaviland]

@@Michael_from_EU_Germany Berlin ist anders, das zählt nicht 😁

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

It would even be possible to do MMP with a single vote. Still doing the whole "half and half" system, but not disregarding the "losing" votes on the FPTP half.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

My Social Sciences Brain is delighted with this video and Joel has great taste in content creators with funny voiceovers.

[@simonkustner1561]

Die Prinzen (the prices) is or was a popular eastern german popmusic band, that apparently said "It wasn't all bad (in the DDR)" - probably in an interview

[@leehallam9365]

Coalition governments are actually the rule in countries with electoral systems based on a proportional representation system. The plus side is you do get a government with representatives if a majority of voters. The down side is that you get a government programme that no one voted for. That's because all the negotiations about policy and who gets which job happen after voters have voted. You might back a party because you like particular policies, but they might be the ones dropped in negotiations to do a deal on other policies.

[@arendkoehn3619]

So before the votes you have a big campaign and in this campaign the parties announce a program and a candidate for chancellor. You vote not directly for the chancellor but if the party win which you vote for... You normally get the announced chancellor.

[@itskyansaro]

During the Campaigning for the elections, the Parties often present their Candidate who they want to put up as Chancellor, so though the Voters don't directly vote the Chancellor, they know more or less, who would become chancellor, when they gave their vote to a certain Party. The whole government structure is made in that complicated way to split up power, that it is almost impossible for one Person or one Party to gain absolute power over Legislature, Justice and Executive, so a third Reich can't repeat itself.

[@optimusvalerius8824]

Coalitions are a regular part of Australian and New Zealand politics too .In Australia particularly in the senate, coalitions of the governing party and some opposition and independents are often used to pass bills .

[@ShoreVietam]

In System with more than 2 parties, there is no guarantee that one will have the majority, hence voting for a president/chancellor directly would be useless. Instead we vote for those who plan on doing things in our interest, which includes deciding for the chancellor in their coalition.

[@martinhuhn7813]

11:35 You vote for a party and for candidates (as explained in the beginning). But the parties clarify in advance, whom their candidate for a chancelor is. Therefore there is hardly any surprise there (other than the president, the position of whom is only a formal one for the most part). It is generally the candidate of the strongest party in the coalition.

[@johnloony68]

2:18 “und so weiter” means “et cetera” or “and so on”

[@DynoosHD]

You vote for a party and a local representative. Both get seats in the parleament. Usealy the party with the most votes gets the position of the chancelor. You are correct it is a indirect system. The hole system is designed to give one part controll over some other, to check each other for mistakes. ... and then you have the same system one level down for the states.

[@JohnDoe-us5rq]

Although there are names on the ballot, you can not vote directly for someone to become president, chancellor or whatever. That is, for one, due to the representational system, but this is also by design. When the BRD was formed after war, the people im charge of designing the new constitution were very aware of the issues stemming form a singular lynchpin in the system. So they removed those singular powerful positions. As a result the parties define a doctrine of their goals to chase in case they got to power and, usually the 2-3 most powerful parties, will also assign a candidate for the position of the chancellor. So basically one has a somewhat idea on who's going to be chancellor. But since the position of the chancellor is more like the one of the ruling party's foreman, it's the outcome of the postelection negotiations about forming a coalition that will define the upcoming ruling instead of just the president's/chancellor's agenda.

[@tosa2522]

The coalition of CDU/CSU + SPD was from 2017 to 2021. There was also an attempt in 2017 to form a coalition of SPD + Die Günen + FDP, and unfortunately the parties did not agree for weeks to set out their goals in a coalition agreement. In the end, the FDP withdrew from the negotiations and announced this with the meanwhile legendary words, "Better not to govern than to govern badly". The GroKo (grand coalition) of the CDU and SPD was then formed. A coalition of the two "Volksparteien"/mainstream parties (representing the broadest spectrum of voters) is not considered very progressive and represents a policy of stagnation.

[@pavelmacek282]

correction 7:41: the minimum of 5% of the popular vote is not to get seat in the government, it is the limit to get a seat in the lower chamber of parliament aka Bundestag! also as mentioned here several times - except UK that has very similar model as US in the two party system, this is very common way of voting/government in many EU countries

[@jensstawicki1870]

In Germany each party nominates their candidate for chancellor. When you vote for a party you at the same time vote for their main candidate Certainly the system is not perfect, but better than the 1 party elections in china or Russia. Also the 2 party system in the USA is not ideal, especially as not the majority of the votes counts to elect a president, Israel has a different system, where also the smallest parties can get in power. The results you ( or shall I name it desaster ) you can see in their last governments

[@jensstawicki1870]

@@Michael_from_EU_Germany 1) agree and accept, smaller parties don’t nominate a candidate for chancellor in Germany 2) yes, but these small parties have never a chance due to the American voting system ( as far I as know and see )

[@KaiHenningsen]

@@jensstawicki1870 They tend to get at most one or two seats, if they're lucky.

[@rwsrwsrwt]

@@Michael_from_EU_Germany Even if there are more than only 2 parties to choose from, the system of "the winner takes it all" encourages you to only consider those who actually stand a chance to win the majority. That's also the reason why you might give your first vote (Erststimme) in Germany to "the lesser of the two evils" rather than to the representative of your "favorite" party, while you might give your second vote (Zweitstimme) to a smaller party even if it's "only" about whether they will ever win at least 5% of the votes and make it to the parliament at all (which could affect the possible coalitions). If it was only about the one party winning the majority in the first place, then smaller parties never get a chance to grow.

[@nfzed]

The part about the president being able to exercise a veto. Not quiet. The wording in the basic law is a bit vague and convention dictates that the president only vetoes laws that are blatantly unconstitutional and that he only refuses to appoint a minister if said appointment would also be against basic law or other laws. Otherwise he doesn’t

[@kutilsima5584]

It's exactly as you say - you don't directly vote for a specific government. You vote for a party and the winner creates the government. Though you usually get the name of a party's man candidate for a chancellor (rest of Europe has the prime minister = premier). Also, the winner party has the majority in the parliament. If the winner isn't the majority, then a coalition is necessery. In the USA it's different because you have the presidential system. You vote for a president and he apoints his companions.

[@mweskamppp]

The government is not directly elected. Like in UK the parliament elects the PM the german Bundestag elects the Chancellor. Etc.

[@SvenGadgetKlemmbausteine]

In the United States, the president is not directly elected. Voters elect electors, who then elect the president. Here, too, the voter must trust that the elector will follow the wishes of the voters. In Germany, the chancellor is elected by parliament. This is calculated as a percentage of voters' votes. So the party with the most seats also has the most voting power. In this respect, the chancellor candidate of this party will very likely prevail. In addition, the German Chancellor does not have as many rights as the President in the USA. Without the consent of Parliament, the Chancellor has no rights. In the US, the President can overrule or veto Parliament.

[@AaAa-si7mo]

we are voting for a party, but the parties have their main candidate that they would like to be chancellor, and that they advertise with. so they say: "do you want candidate x to be chancellor, then vote for our party!" so indirectly you know which chancellor you vote for. however it depends on multiple things if this party's candidate really becomes chancellor. because they need to form a coalition with other parties to get over 50% of the seats. and then the party within this coalition with the most votes gets the chancellor. so neither your party being in the government coalition guarantees them getting the chancellor (if they are not the biggest), nor your party getting the most votes overall (if they dont end up being in the coalition, because other parties manage to get 50% without them). but you can be sure that the party that you vote for will want to make their guy happen and if they can, will vote him in for that.

[@blondkatze3547]

The video is a bit older since October 26, 2021 , Bärbel Bas has been President of the Bundestag fom the SPD and no longer Wolfgang Schäuble from the CDU.🙂

[@uwehansen2915]

in germany wive ourer ID regestration after 16 you are get a note at wath time and location you can vote

[@robertanderson4917]

Totally amputated. Germany's neighbors loved it so much that they each took a little chunk of it like France Alsace-Lorrain or Poland Silesia, East-Brandenburg, Westpreussen, Südpreussen, Neuostpreussen, Warthegau, the Check Republik, Sudetenland, Böhmen-Mähren, Italien Südtirol, Slovakia, Südkärnten, Untersteyermark, Kanaltal, Istrien, Ungarn Westheinzenland, the Netherlands Weatniedersachsen and Limburg.

[@serfranke5744]

Concerning 11:04: While we in Germany do not directly vote on our head of government (like the US voters do), it is still not completely random who will become the next chancellor after an election. The parties usually announce several months before the election who will be their nominee for the office of chancellor. So, if party A has Herr Müller running as their candidate for being chancellor, the voter knows very well that this man will become chancellor if his party succeeds in the election. So, the voter knows in advance who he is voting for despite not directly electing the chancellor ...at least if you are voting for one of the two traditional major players in German federal politics (the CDU/CSU or the SPD). The minor parties you saw in the video (Greens, FDP, Left-Wingers and AFD) often do not bother to nominate their own candidate as they normally only become the junior partner in a government coalition. There have been exceptions to this, especially in recent years, as the growing diversity in our political spectrum on the federal level also meant that the traditional major players lost voters to the minor ones, but in the history of the FRG, only these two major parties have so far ever provided a chancellor. So, as a voter of the minor parties, you will have to wait and see if the party of your choice makes it into the government and with whom. This is also not entirely random as some constellations are much more likely than others (the rather conservative CDU/CSU would probably never enter a coalition with the Left-Wingers for example).

[@jochendamm]

It is complicated but the main reason is to divide power equally with the power to stop other parts doing misdeeds. All institutions control each other. The voters simply vote for their candidates of their region as representative. These are 299 local representatives in total. And the other 299 seats get the parties according to ratio. I could vote for party C but for the representative of party K, who is better suited to represent my regional interests. The amount of parties varies every election and can be higher than 30 or 40 competitors. But most of them don't get enough votes. You have to get at least 5 percent of the votes or 3 direct elected seats for representatives to get in the parliament. This prevents to have a lot of one seat parties. But it is risky and forces a lot of resentment for voters. If you vote for a directive program of a party put to form a coalition the party betrays their own point they got voted for. For example The Greens betrayed voters and force their way almost 180 degrees turned. But their coalition partner FDP (Liberals) lost their position in the state election for keeping ther promises - they got kicked out of Berlin senate due to 5 percent hurdle for their bad image they provide on federal level.

[@norbertrottenari4516]

Basically yes! the parties nominate the candidate for Chancellor, so if you like the party but not the candidate you are out of luck. but usually the Chancellor represents the values and ideals of the party.

[@christiandust1195]

You pretty much vote for a party and they do have a candidate The party with most votes usually starts Koalition talks and most of the times also their candidate becomes chancellor. But it might also be part of the Koalition deal that another party demands their candidate to become chancellor while they agree on the policies of their koalitionpartner . This is written down in the koalitionpapers

[@PokhrajRoy.]

11:39 It’s an indirect election. In India, you vote directly for most public offices (except President and Upper House of Parliament) but in other countries, you choose your local government which chooses the executive.

[@BlackWater_49]

11:05 No. The Bundestag is elected directly by the people and in turn elects the Chancellor. The reason for that is simple: If a Chancellor dies or for another reason leaves office you don't have to have a new election since the government still stands, it's just the head of government that is gone and has to be replaced. The Vice Chancellor would take the place of the Chancellor. The Chancellor is the head of government and thus appointments his/her cabinet which is the collection of all the different Ministers (cf. Secretaries in the US). The President is the head of state, as mentioned only a figurehead (sort of like the King in the UK) and is elected by the Bundesversammlung which consists of Members of the Bundestag and representatives from the different state governments. Again the President doesn't hold any real power. He's not even allowed to make a trip without permission by the cabinet.

[@aphextwin5712]

In a simplified way: (1) You vote for a party. Based on the percentages of votes each party gets, they get a proportional number of seats in the Federal Diet (Bundestag). (2) Through negotiations between the parties, a group of parties which together have an absolute majority of the seats in parliament emerges, the coalition. (3) Once the parties forming the coalition have agreed on a set of common goals, the chancellor (like the British Prime Minister) is elected by parliament. (4) Until the next election, this majority of members of parliament then also passes all laws and other matter that the coalition had agreed upon at the beginning plus of course anything new that comes up that requires changes to laws. So far, the same two parties (CDU & SPD) have always been the two largest parties in all federal elections. And their dominance has been such, that you could never assemble a majority in parliament that didn’t include at least one of them. It has also been a convention that the ‘head’ of the largest party in the coalition becomes the chancellor. Meaning also that the ‘head’ of one these two parties eventually became chancellor. Together with the knowledge which parties are most likely to join together, you sort of knew which party (or parties) you had to give your vote if you wanted to have either the ‘head’ of the SPD or the ‘head’ of the CDU to become chancellor. But as the number of parties that got seats in parliament has increased over time, predicting which parties would join to form a coalition has become more difficult. It gets also a bit more complicated in that some laws also require a majority in the second chamber, the Bundesrat. As mentioned in the video, the latter is similar to the American Senate except that its members are appointed by the equivalent of the state governors and essentially are instructed by their respective ‘governor’ how to vote. And since the ‘governors’ are elected themselves by state legislatures with their own coalitions, getting a law through both chambers can involve a lot of negotiation between many parties and politicians. In the end this requires a lot of compromise. First within the coalition at the federal level and secondly with the members of enough state governments.

[@helfgott1]

Thank you for beeing so interested in my country ❤❤

[@tobeytransport2802]

11:31 I’m British so I may get things wrong but... officially yes, they are just trusting State MPs and Federal MPs to pick a good minister president, chancellor, federal president, and judges etc however unofficially the parties will always vote for their chancellor candidate... so if you vote for a party you are indirectly voting for the chancellor candidate who is supported by them, and the same on the state level with the minister-president. The Federal President is different, in that case the voters actually are just trusting their state cabinets and the Bundestag to pick a good president for Germany, but since the role is so restricted and essentially exists to sort the situation out in case a chancellor can’t be elected, refuse to sign undemocratic legislation, and be a unifying figure for the nation, I’d assume ordinary people on the street don’t worry so much about the Presidential Election. Edit: I forgot to mention that the MPs may vote for another parties chancellor candidate if they agree to form a coalition, in return that party will get cabinet positions and the party of that chancellor candidate will support some legislation proposals by the party who is agreeing to vote for their chancellor. The system therefore allows for more guaranteed compromise than the US one, which just hopes that parties may occasionally get along but the presidency doesn’t rest on compromise like it does in the US.

[@anubis4207]

1:51 You're right... His pronunciation is indeed pretty good. Greetings from Baden Württemberg. :)

[@Kplo-gp8lm]

Correction: Federal elections in Germany are every 4 years. State elections are every 5 years (at least in mine lol)

[@ole7236]

Feli from Germany hosts a podcast called "Understanding Trainstation". There is an episode where the Federal Election in Germany is explained. I would highly recommend to watch it if you are really interested in that topic, and I assume you are. All the other episodes are very interesting as well and great fun to watch.

[@nomakeup666]

i like that you rewind to understand the content

[@mathieubronsema8664]

We got pretty much the same thing in the Netherlands

[@warg8728]

I feel that you are lensing the role of a politician through the behaviour of the American ones, the politicians are different creatures there.

[@JacksLoom]

Two things about german elections that can be said as "unspoken rules": 1. Normaly the party with the most votes, claims the right to appoint the cancelor and build the government. Meaning its common courtesy (from the other parties) that they are the first to talk to the other elected parties and find common ground for a coalition. (Those talks, if successful, result in a "coalitioncontract" where to define key goals of there possible government) Only if all those talks fail (or it very much looks like that) the party that has the best shot at forming a coalition successfully starts der coalitiontalks with the other parties. (this is normaly the party with the secondmost votes. 2. When elections are coming up in Germany normaly all parties, who think they have a shot at getting the most votes and appoint cancelor (Point 1) will name a cancelor candidate for there party. So you dont vote the cancelor directly, but you can be sure, if you vote for a given party and they DO get the most votes they WILL make their candidate cancelor, if they are able to build a coalition. (This is not lawenforced, but i dont recall there was ever a different person being appointed cancelor then the candidate. It would be an enormous scandal.) Also one thing the guy from the video didnt say, it is not uncommon that a coalition consists of more that 2 parties. At the moment government consists of SPD with cancelor Olaf Scholz, the greens and the FDP

[@MichaEl-rh1kv]

The current coalition would be SPD, Greens and FDP. A coalition is based on a treaty between the parties stating goals and common projects for the upcoming legislature period (as well as some topics to put on hold because they couldn't yet agree on them). That treaty does in most cases also state which party has the lead in which department. 11:16 The "fathers and mothers" of the constitution decided against direct election of the president because of bad experiences with that concept at the end of the Weimar republic. They considered it would give to much legitimacy to a single person even if they stripped the position from all real power, and they feared to get election campaigns concentrating on populism instead of responsibility. Austria however switched back to direct election of their president (who is also slightly more powerful within their very similar system than the German one) and did well so far. Austria is however also a far smaller country (the population is about half of that of biggest German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and only slightly more than that of the fourth biggest state of Lower Saxony). They wanted the parliament to be the institution with the highest legitimacy as the only direct representant of the sovereign, the electorate. The position of the federal president is therefore comparable to that of the king or queen in the UK and not to that of the Emperor of the German Empire before WW I or that of the president of the Weimar republic 1919-1932. The German system strengthens the significance of parties and party programs - the top politicians represent that programs (mostly) and are (to a certain extent) exchangeable. You'll have still your local representatives which you can know in person, but it is difficult to assess e.g. a candidate for chancellorship who you only know by some well-prepared TV appearances if there is no well-organized party structure behind to keep him in line (and can replace him very quickly if he proves himself publicly to be corrupt).

[@holokom3330]

Its actually pretty simpel. We got 6 major parties (and alot of smaller ones) that represent about every political idea you can have. You then vote for a person, and a party that most closely matches your political ideas. After the Vote, like minutes after, the politicans will start to negotiate. In the end, a goverment is formed that will enact a bunch of compromised decisions between all its members. (Though some very particular topics for certain partys might just go their way. ) - If the greens get elected, they usually are granted complete freedom over enviromental policies, since that is their main point of politics, but they tend to give up financial problems in return to the liberal party for example.

[@johnfisher9816]

This was a very informative and helpful video Joel. For "ItsJps" a video on the Westminster parliamentary system would also be a good topic. It is found around the world in Commonwealth countries, and is a multiparty system, usually as a constitutional monarchy, e.g., Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, etc. It would be fun to contrast the Westminster model to European parliamentary models, such as Germany's. Joel, I can't wait for you to read my draft term paper, as your comments will be very insightful, and maybe even inciteful!! John in Canada

[@Kris1964]

You only elect the «congressmen» directly. The congressmen from the majority party or coalition of parties choose who is going to be chancellor. The chancellor chooses his cabinettmembers from the members of his party (not just friends of his as often in the US) … the congressmen also elect the president, who very often is a senior, well respected former head of a party. He should be well respected across party lines and is often from the oposition party. His or her role is to be more like the queen in the UK, mostly representing the country on state visits, but also to have the calming speech inntimes of crisis etc.

[@einflinkeswiesel2695]

It's actually kind of shocking to me that the idea of politicial coalitions is new to someone xD

[@Luredreier]

11:34 So the problem with voting for a single individual directly is that a single individual is just one person do there's just one winner. It's a binary election result, so if you have 10 candidates and one gets 11% of the votes they get 100% of the power While if you have a indirect system where you vote for parties that has proportional representation (so roughly the same percentage of the seats pr party as votes pr party) you at least have negotiations for who should get those single person appointments where you'll get other concessions in return of you are from a smaller party and supports a candidate. For instance here in Norway I'm voting for the green party here. They're too small to have a chance to get a prime minister from our party, but they could conceivably get a minister in a government in return for supporting a specific prime minister candidate here, or we could influence the agreement on how the government will run things and get some laws passed in return for support etc meaning that smaller parties have some influence. Also, we don't need to support a candidate that's completely unacceptable to us. So a party that might technically be the biggest individual party may still lose an election because they can't get enough parties to agree to form a coalition with them. Be that because their leaders are jerks or because of their politics or because they wheren't offering a good enough deal or whatever. So you end up with politicians that's very good at negotiating from a party with a lot of voters in power instead of someone that just won a popularity contest among the electorate.

[@georgeorwell7291]

Yes in germany you elect a party or a particular representative , not the head of state. Its like chosing a company and not a speciffic CEO.

[@Frahamen]

While the chancellor is not directly elected, it is pretty much by definition the leader of the largest party. So when you vote for a party, you effectively also vote for the party's chancellor candidate. (except if the biggest party isn't able to form a coalition, but where talking about Germany, not Belgium.)

[@toprock9500]

New Zealand has a similar system , 2 votes, 1 for the party, 1 for the electorate vote

[@enricoritter6441]

you can be pretty sure which cancellor gets elected if you vote a party since the person often represents the party

[@stevendurick9441]

Would enjoy seeing you react to the Australian political parties as well

[@neereusyt8005]

Hey, I'm from Germany and I also live in Germany. But there is not necessarily a domino effect for the chancellor. You vote for the relevant party and the MP. This determines which party gets the most votes and thus becomes the governing party. If a party does not manage to get the majority of votes, the party with the most votes must join forces with other parties to form a majority in the Bundestag (coalition). However, each party nominates a candidate for chancellor before the election. In the event that parties join forces, elections are then held between the candidates in the Bundestag. So as a voter you know who will or could become chancellor with your own vote.

[@Eignerartig]

There is a little mistake in the video you reacted to: The German parliament Bundestag is not elected every 5 years but every 4 years. The Federal President, on the other hand, is elected every 5 years, not directly by the people, but by the Federal Assembly, which consists of all members of the Bundestag and just as many envoys from the federal states. And no voter has to register beforehand. Since every resident has to register at the town hall when changing residence, the German authorities have an exact electoral register. Every citizen over the age of 18 will receive a notification by post a few weeks before the election, stating exactly when the election will take place and which polling station is responsible for them. As the video explained: In the elections to the "Bundestag", the national parliament, each voter has two votes. With the first vote he elects the representative of his constituency: Each party can nominate a candidate for each constituency, and non-party candidates can also stand. This means that you choose a person with the first vote. The candidate with the most votes in the constituency is definitively elected to Parliament. With the second vote he elects a party: each party can draw up a numbered list of candidates in each federal state ("state list"). Most of the time, the same candidates stand on it who are running for the first vote in the constituencies. A candidate who does not win his constituency has the chance to enter parliament anyway. The larger the share of second votes the party receives in the state, the more candidates from its list are elected. The higher up the list a candidate is, the better their chance. The distribution of second votes ultimately determines the distribution of seats in Parliament. However, a party must receive at least 5% of the second votes nationwide in order to be represented in parliament at all. A party that does not reach 5% can only enter Parliament by winning constituencies via the first votes. If a party in a federal state wins more seats with the first votes than it is entitled to after second votes (overhang seats), then the other parties get additional seats (compensation seats) from their state lists so that parliament again reflects the distribution of the second votes. Due to these overhang mandates and compensatory mandates, the parliament is often significantly larger than the constitution actually envisages. In Germany, the Federal Chancellor as head of government is not directly elected by the people, but the parliament elects one of its members as Chancellor. Of course, the big parties are already campaigning for their top candidate, whom they want to make chancellor. Thus, in order to become chancellor and form a government, the leader of a party must forge a majority in parliament that elects him and supports his government's policies. Either his party already has an absolute majority in parliament or he has to win other parties for a coalition. The government - chancellor and minister - then consists of politicians from the coalition parties. The coalition party with the most seats in parliament usually provides the chancellor. Thus, the chancellor in Germany always has his own majority in parliament. Unlike in the US, where a Democratic president sometimes has to govern against a Republican majority in Congress and vice versa. Laws drafted by the government and passed by the Bundestag must then be approved by the second chamber of the German parliament, the "Bundesrat". The Bundesrat is made up of envoys from the state governments of the 16 federal states. If the Bundesrat vetoes a law, it must be negotiated in the Mediation Committee, which consists of members of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. After that, the Bundestag and Bundesrat must pass the law again. Finally, the Federal President, as head of state, has to check whether the law that has been passed corresponds to the constitution. The law can only come into force with his signature. But even if a law is already in force, every citizen can appeal against it at the Federal Constitutional Court to have it checked whether it really corresponds to the constitution. The court can then overrule this law or order the government and parliament to change this law within a time limit

[@snowsnake1264]

You can watch the video from the Black Forest family about the german parties

[@schnelma605]

2:17 und so weiter (usw.) = et cetera (etc.)

[@johnhendriks4085]

I an from Amsterdam, the Netherlands and we have almost the same political system as most of western european countries. We don't have an electoral system but equal representation in parliament. This means our parliament has members of many political parties. It never happens that one party has the majority. So, we also must form a coalition to make a new government after general elections. The prime minister is the leading person but the king is officially the head of state (like a president). But the government needs to have a majority in parliament when there is a vote for a new law

[@numakthegreat]

Dieser Kommentarbereich ist nun Eigentum der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

[@stephenveldhoen]

check out how the Canadian Government works. We have 6 major parties in Canada but when election time comes there is up to 12 parties on the ballot

[@tobiastogerin3598]

THANK YOU - GREAT VIDEO

[@johnloony68]

In the USA House of Representatives, the Congressmen and Congresswomen of each party elect their own Congressional leader. If you didn’t have a President, that person would become your Prime Minister (not directly elected by the voters or by the Electoral College).

[@bs5199]

The chancellor is elected by parliament, but before the election the parties nominate a candidate for chancellor. The largest party in a coalition provides the Chancellor. So you can use your vote to influence who can become chancellor, albeit indirectly.

[@arnewengertsmann9111]

Basically we vote for Parties for the Parliament and let them figure out, who will be running our goverment. It just means, we vote rather for platforms and programs than for persons. A system I personally like better, as our votes are more issue driven than charisma driven. Which doesn't mean of course, that a charismatic leader can't influence how his party does.

[@arnewengertsmann9111]

@@Michael_from_EU_Germany Ok, true, we have a mixed vote. But mainly the first vote doesn't matter as much as the party vote, as you equalize if one party gets to many direct mandates by giving the other parties more seats. So we still don't really vote for people. Something I like actually. It is never a good idea to give more emphasis on people than on platforms. The issues and the solutions, is what matters.

[@aaron9828]

In practice, each one of the bigger parties elects a chancellor candiate and the candidate from the party which gets the most votes becomes the chancellor.

[@asmodon]

10:17 Three Arrows is an excellent YT channel. Maybe try his breakdown of the Rammstein video „Deutschland“.

[@michaausleipzig]

A person's political identity/loyalty usually lies with a certain party, not a person. So you vote for the party you support, because you want them to be able to implement their programm. During election campaigns parties of course run with a "head candidate", a person they will make chancellor if they win the election. So you have an idea who it will be, even though you don't vorlte for them directly.

[@oliviacharlottemortimer6498]

I think it would be really interesting for you to look into Switzerland. Its the only direct Democracy and all in all is a super interesting country that speaks 4 languages.

[@trebronrehts]

A noticable difference in respect of both our voting systems is the fact, that the US (still) have the Electoral College, which seems completely off the rails, not to say undemocratic for us Europeans / Germans. Here, voting for a party, that puts forward a candidate, announcing specific programs is rarely a random process. When we "vote" for a chancellor we usually are pretty much aware of the policy to be expected, since the individual is closely affiliated with the party line. With all the error which goes without saying, meaning: politics as an all-over lousy business where checks and balance are key to any democratic process.

[@susucruki]

He missed Rheinland Pflanz? That's sad. it's beautiful here :D

[@Alex-wi9uq]

This video is not really up to date. So right now their is a coalition between the SPD(red), the greens(green) and the FDP(yellow). It´s called the "Ampel"-coaliton (trans. traffic light). And our new chancellor is the less known Olaf Scholz. And I really like your videos!

[@lordzizo375]

We only vote for the people in different Parties and they ellect the People in the Different of the Goverment that elect the Chancellor President and the other Bodys that are need to run the Country. But it gives you a good feeling that you did you part. It sometimes takes 6 Months befor the Coalition or Union formed itself. even if the Chancellor or the President is already ellected.

[@andreasburkhart]

This is a old video ⚠️ The curentt coalition is the Greens,the FDP an the SPD. The chancellor is Olfaf Scholz from the SPD. ⚠️

[@Luredreier]

8:08 Due to the German electoral system their coalitions tend to be a bit pathetic, and rarely gas more then 2 parties... Their system heavily favours bigger parties, not *quite* as badly as the US or UK system, but more then ours do here in Norway for instance... Our parliament has far fewer representative (169) but still manages to have 10 parties represented.

[@Rick2010100]

The German President is as much power as the Queen/ King in the UK. The Chancellor has the power, but it not directly voted. Every Party nominates a Chancellor canidate to the elections, and if you vote for the party you will get their Chancellor canidate as Chancellor - if the party wins. The party with the most votes usually gets the Chancellor job in the government. There are usually no big surprises, as the opinion polls usually show wich party is leading.

[@Georg-jz8iv]

Fun Fact: the German Erststimme without the Zweitstimme matches the British election system.

[@BlackWater_49]

4:32 Wrong, and that not at all hard to find out. Federal elections are every FOUR years. State elections vary from state to state but for example in the most populous one, North Rhine-Westphalia, they are every five years.

[@reinerjung1613]

Oh gosh. The voting system is not very well explained. You have two votes: One the a direct candidate representing your election district and a second vote used to determine the proportions parties will have in the Bundestag. In case a party wins more direct seats than it could get via the second vote, currently additional seats must be added to fulfill the proportions again. At least this is the model we currently have, but it leads to large assemblies. There is a ruling by the German Supreme Court (bundesverfassungsgericht) that the proportions must be adhered to. So the options to reform the model are limited.

[@BlackWater_49]

10:52 Nope, absolutely not. The President can refuse to sign legislation into law ONLY if the legislation is blatantly unconstitutional. But even that is debated. Some even suggest that the President can only refuse to sign legislation into law if the process required to pass legislation has not been abided by. Otherwise he's just a figurehead. He formally appoints the Chancellor after s-/he has been elected by the Bundestag (Federal Diet) and formally appoints and dismisses the Federal Ministers on request of the Chancellor. The President has no say in the matter.

[@johnnyringo80]

An important part that is not explained in the video is the "representative" aspect. It means as a citizen, you vote for representatives to do all the politics stuff for you. So you can mostly vote for the party you think reflects your political views, but you have little influence on how things actually work out. Due to the complicated system, a lot of negotiation and compromising has to be done, and you have to trust your representatives that they do this in your interest. If you're really unhappy with their work, then vote different next time (that will probably teach them to do better in the future), but you'll have to always keep in mind that you'll never get exactly what you want. And since we Germans have learned that overly heated sentiments on politics are not a good thing, we opt for a "keep calm and hope for the best"-approach.

[@johndoe_panama]

basically the political persons and political parties have a plan what they want to do. You vote what Plans you like the most. Most Political Parties and Persons dont respect the Plans and do whatever they want (some even receive large sums from private companys as advisor). So normal Citizens can only influence the Politics by doing demonstrations. Changing the Politcs by creating new politic parties almost all the time fail, because they need so much votes to reach the 5% burden. My opinion as a german: They need to introduce nation wide votes for big political changes.

[@ErzTown]

Every party announce an Kanzler candidate and they have a program and the kind of sticking to it so you know for what you vote.

[@martinstock]

@@Michael_from_EU_Germany Indeed - some parties which have no chance that their candidate could become the next chancellor skip to name one. But they still have a top candidate (#1 on their list) - which is is often enough the party leader.

[@reinerjung1613]

11:24 you are correct. People cannot elect head of the executive branch themselves. However, the government has much less power in Germany. The main body of power is the parliament (in your video called Federal Diet). So essentially, the parliament should be on top of things in the graphics. There is discussion about how about public opinion, but Germany is a representative democracy so we elect parties which have laid out their goals in a election program. And we vote for them on that basis (and their public image of course). There are also options for direct democracy on state level, but not on federal level. After WW2 this system was chosen to require more consensus to make changes and limit the options of going of the rails again and end up in a fascist dictatorship.

[@rileyxxxx]

since this video is a bit older, right now we have a coalition of green, red and yellow.

[@MellonVegan]

1:50 Yeah, that was almost impeccable.

[@Gregory-F]

About the vote/appointment, People vote for a Party and they know that the leader of the winning Party is gonna be the chancellor. This is what happens in every country why a proportional election system.

[@sabineworner5202]

Our political system has an additinal task and the task is to prevent a dictorship.

[@Luredreier]

8:32 No, not really. Because there's no third or fourth etc party benefitting if you attack the other party in the US and because having 1 more vote then another party gives you 100% of the power in a electoral circle people simply aren't incentivised to cooperate in the US. If you cooperate with others you're essentially "helping the enemy" in the US system. And it's conceivable to have a majority. While in Europe most countries have a system where it's literally impossible to get *anything* done without support from at least one other party every single election and you may still get some power even if there's 9 other parties with more voters then you (in Norways case) or 6 other parties (in Germanys case).