Politics of Bavaria

The political system of the Free State of Bavaria is based on the Basic Law of the Federal Republic and the Bavarian constitution.

The Free State of Bavaria is in the federal system of Germany is a member state that is organized according to the principles of a republican, democratic and social rule of law. The executive branch is headed by the prime minister, the legislature is the Assembly, the country has its own constitutional jurisdiction.

Bavaria is the largest area and population, second largest state in the Federal Republic of Germany. Due to the fact that the Christian Social Union ( CSU) - the only one on a single state limited People's Party - since 1957 continuously is in government and consistently achieved since 1962 with a break for the legislative period 2008-2013, the absolute majority of parliamentary seats could, Bavaria exerts a considerable influence on federal policy.

2.2.1 State Government
2.2.2 Managing Authorities
2.2.3 Land Audit

2.3.1 Constitutional Court
2.3.2 specialized courts

3.1 legislative initiative
3.2 Treatment in the Diet
3.3 final vote
3.4 Notice and entry into force
3.5 referendum and plebiscite

4.1 Municipalities law
4.2 districts
4.3 counties
4.4 communities

5.1 parties represented in the Bundestag
5.2 Other parties

Constitution

The Kingdom of Bavaria was awarded as one of the first German States as early as 1808 a constitution. The current Constitution of the Free State of Bavaria occurred after a referendum held on 1 December 8 December 1946 in force.

Since the Bavarian constitution was incurred prior to the Basic Law, it regulates not only the state-building, but had to take into account all areas that were previously laid down in the Constitution. This is reflected in the four main parts of the structure and functions of the State (Articles 1-97 ), the fundamental rights and obligations (Articles 98-123 ), community life (Article 124-150 ) and the complex of Economics and Labour ( Article 151 - 177) resist.

The entry into force of the Basic Law lost the Bavarian Constitution in importance, since many provisions of the Bavarian Constitution have their counterpart in the Basic Law and there laid down in Article 31 Principle " Federal law supersedes state law " for the constitutional law applies.

In the first 22 years after entry into force of the Constitution remained unchanged. Important constitutional changes in 1970 by lowering the voting age, the introduction of national policy objective the protection of natural resources in 1984 and the introduction of the local citizens' decision in 1995. The most radical constitutional amendment was approved on 8 February 1998 in three referendums. The Law amending the Constitution of the Free State of Bavaria - Constitutional Reform Act - further development in the field of fundamental rights and state goals several articles have been changed, recast or deleted. It governed inter alia, the terms of office of State bodies new and abolished the Bavarian Senate.

Organs

The structure and functions of these bodies are determined by the principle of separation of powers. Sovereignty resides in the people, which is represented in the Legislature by the state legislature. Executive power is exercised by the Bavarian state government. Judicial power is in the hands of independent courts and the Bavarian Constitutional Court.

Legislature

The legislation in Bavaria is up to the legislature and through forms of direct democracy to the people.

Diet

The 180 members of the Parliament are elected for five years by universal, equal, direct and secret ballot for a " better proportional representation ": This system of proportional representation and majority voting is combined and the voters can not just a party but a special candidate with their second vote on their tick list and so significantly change the order of the list of candidates. The number of seats in parliament is calculated by adding the first and second votes of nominations under the Hare - Niemeyer method.

Before the end of his actual election period, the parliament may dissolve by majority decision itself or can be dismissed at the request of one million citizens entitled to vote in a referendum.

The Diet is up to the decision of laws and the vote on the budget of the State.

He chooses the Bavarian Minister-President and confirmed members of the Bavarian government. The control of the State Government, he shall exercise by the Zitierungsrecht, the question right and the opportunity to set up committees of inquiry and study commissions. A vote of no confidence is not provided in the Bavarian Constitution, however, the Prime Minister must resign if a trusting relationship with the Diet due to political circumstances is no longer possible. If he does not, he can be indicted by the Bavarian Constitutional Court. Furthermore, the responsibility of the parliament, the election review and the choice of the Bavarian Data Protection Commissioner.

While the legislative tasks decreased by the federal powers, and by the extension of EU powers in recent decades, take the Landtag reinforced true local and regional interests against the state administration.

The Diet is a working parliament, the majority of Parliament's work takes place in the 12 standing committees, not in plenary. In addition to the standing committees, there is the parliamentary oversight committee, the Data Protection Commission, the judges Election Commission and the Interim Committee. To the beginning of a legislature elect the members of the Bureau and the Council of Elders.

Senate

The Bavarian Senate was until its abolition on 1 January 2000, the second chamber of parliament and unique in Germany.

The 60 members of the Bavarian Senate, which had to be at least 40 years old, were chosen by social, economic, cultural and municipal corporations for six years or appointed in the case of religious communities. Each of the groups was to a fixed number of seats. Since the Senate was a permanent body, every two years a third of the seats were filled. Senate members were not allowed at the same time be member of parliament, however, enjoyed similar rights like this. The Senate was involved in the legislation as a consultative body. He had assessment tasks in bills and was equipped with a simple right of veto in legislation that could overrule the parliament by simple majority.

A popular initiative " Lean State without Senate " the Ecological- Democratic Party ( ödp ) in June 1997, reached the necessary number of votes with 10.5%. In the subsequent referendum on 8 February 1998, 69.2 % were in favor of the abolition of the Senate. For the counter-proposal of the CSU, which provided for a change in the composition of the Senate, voted 23.6 %. After the Bavarian Constitutional Court had declared the referendum for constitutional, took effect on 1 January 2000, the bill to abolish the Senate in force. The Senate and thus the hitherto only two-chamber system in a state ceased to exist.

Executive

The entire state administration subordinate to the State Government as the senior political governing body. Subordinated to the state ministries are the most supreme state authorities, the central authorities and the lower authorities.

State Government

The Bavarian State Government is the supreme executive authority of the Free State of Bavaria. It consists of the Prime Minister and up to 17 government ministers and state secretaries. Current prime minister Horst Seehofer (CSU ).

He is elected by secret ballot by the Parliament no later than 22 days (since the referendum of 21 September 2003) after its constitutive meeting for a term of five years. Selectable is everyone entitled to vote Bayer, provided that he has completed the age of 40. The Prime Minister can not be disposed of by Parliament. However, the Constitution prescribes resign if a trusting relationship with the Diet due to political circumstances can no longer possible ( Article 44 § 3 Bavarian Constitution). If he does not, he can be indicted by the Bavarian Constitutional Court.

The Prime Minister directs the affairs of the State Government. He appoints and dismisses with the consent of the Diet his deputy and members of the state government, which he assigns to business areas or special tasks. With him is the political policy-making powers and he represents Bavaria outward. In his work he is responsible to the parliament. In individual cases can make use of a pardon of the Prime Minister.

The Bavarian State Chancellery supports the Prime Minister and the state government in its constitutional responsibilities. These are in particular:

The enforcement of the laws and decisions of the Diet
Right of legislative initiative
The appointment of senior officials of the government ministries and the supreme state authorities
Supervision of the entire state administration
The supervision of municipalities and corporations and foundations under public law
The exercise of the emergency law under Article 48 of the Bavarian constitution. This emergency law but according regulated by the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany of emergency by the substantive importance forth the principle of " federal law supersedes state law " severely limited.

National Socialist state governments 1933-1945 Epp | Siebert | Giesler

Used by the U.S. Military Government State Governments 1945/1946 Schäffer | Hoegner I

Administrative authorities

The administrative authorities are mainly concerned with it, to carry out the laws passed. The structure of the authority structure in Bavaria is divided into three stages:

The Supreme State authorities are at the forefront of the administration. These are the government ministries, the State Chancellery and the Supreme Court. Government funding agencies are among the ministries to which they are subordinate, and the lower authorities that oversee them. The safety agencies include, for example the governments of the seven districts, the police headquarters and the regional finance office. Under authorities are ultimately subordinate administrative authorities, such as the district offices or the highways departments.

Court of Audit

The State Court of Auditors, whose members are elected by the Parliament, the government finances from external position appraised out.

Judiciary

The Free State of Bavaria is court holder of the Bavarian Constitutional Court and specialized courts.

Constitutional Court

The Constitutional Court is the highest court for constitutional questions in Bavaria. His 38 honorary judges shall be elected by a simple majority by the state legislature and decide on

Charges against members of the Bavarian State Government or the Bavarian Parliament
The exclusion of groups of voters of the election and the validity of the election
Standard control suits and constitutional complaints concerning the state constitution
Organ disputes between the highest state organs

In addition, there is the possibility to file a suit against laws, regulations or ordinances before the Constitutional Court with the popular action for every citizen in Bavaria. A Bavarian specialty is that a citizen also may bring proceedings, without itself being affected.

Specialized courts

See main article List of the courts of the State of Bavaria

In addition to the constitutional jurisdiction exist in Bavaria the five usual in Germany court branches of specialized jurisdiction:

Ordinary jurisdiction with 72 district courts, 22 district courts, three courts of appeals; the Bavarian Supreme Court was disbanded on 30 June 2006 and its tasks allocated to the courts of appeals,
The administrative jurisdiction with six Bavarian administrative courts and the Bavarian Administrative Court
The tax jurisdictions with two tax courts
The labor courts with eleven labor courts and two regional labor courts
Social justice with seven social courts and the Bavarian State Social Court

Legislative procedure

See: legislative procedure in Bavaria

The legislative process is governed by the Constitution and is as follows:

Legislative initiative

The Bills may be introduced by the Prime Minister on behalf of the State Government or by the people from the middle of the Landtag.

Treatment in the Diet

All bills, even successful petition be submitted to the President of the Landtag and treated in two readings, if not a third reading is requested. Among the readings, the bills are to be put on the agenda of Parliament. In the first reading only the principles of the document are discussed and the state legislature directs the committee to. This advice in consultation with interested other committees on the bill and takes a decision, the decision comes as a recommendation to the General Assembly. The second reading will be held a general debate. An individual consultation with all the provisions of the bill or an individual vote occurs only if and when requested. Until the end of the second reading applications can be made to change the bill. A third reading is carried out only on specific request.

Final vote

Of the bill or reject matched - After completion of the readings is the adoption - unchanged or as amended in committee or even in the General Assembly amended. Constitutional Amending laws must in Parliament reach a two -thirds majority and subsequently adopted in a referendum by the citizens entitled to vote. For other laws by a simple majority is sufficient.

Publication and entry into force

The constitutional processes, have been laws will be forwarded to the Prime Minister, who signed them and within a week in the Bavarian law and shall publish the Official Gazette. In any Act of the tag must be determined, on which it enters into force (Article 76 of the Constitution).

Popular initiative and referendum

The state constitution provides for participation by way of the people in the legislative process. After a successful registration process for which the support of at least 25,000 citizens is necessary, the referendum takes place. Support at least one tenth of the voting citizens the referendum, the parliament has three ways to deal with the resulting previous bill:

He can take it unchanged and decide as a law.
He can refuse and then you have to hold a referendum on the bill him.
He can make an alternative proposal and these bring in a referendum against the referendum.

Important referendum in the Bavarian history were, for example, the " referendum broadcasting freedom ", which called in 1972 successfully to operate radio and television broadcasting exclusively in public law institutions, and the referendum " Local Referendum " of 1995, which had set itself the goal, at the local level citizens' initiative and referendum as to introduce elements of direct democracy. In the subsequent referendum 57.8 % voted for the bill of the initiators and 38.7 % for the counter-proposal of Parliament. The most far-reaching consequences was certainly " without Senate Lean State ", which led the referendum to abolish the second chamber of the Bavarian Parliament.

Local self-government

The Local self- government is exercised in Bavaria by the seven districts, 71 counties, 25 county-level cities and 2031 kreisangehorige communities and cities.

Local elections

Bavarian municipal law can be described as proportional representation with open lists, but has some peculiarities. Thus, various parties and groups of voters can respond Connections list, there is no threshold and there is the possibility to the counting (Up to three votes will be issued to a candidate ) and vote splitting ( votes can be distributed to candidates of different lists). General local elections will take place in Bavaria every six years, the last elections were held in March 2008.

Through this system, a personal choice decision is favored, whereas the party or group of voters is not so much in the foreground. This provides in particular for smaller parties a real chance to make elected officials if they have an appropriate awareness and popularity.

Districts

The counties whose territory is identical to the state administration level government district, are responsible for municipal tasks that counties and municipalities could not cope alone. You assume, inter alia, Tasks in health care ( district hospitals for psychiatry ), the Education ( Schools for hearing and speech impaired ) and nature conservation.

For each district, a county council is for 5 years to coincide with the Landtag, which determines the lines of the policy and the district presidents Tags selects as the executive organ.

Counties

The counties are on the one hand lower administrative authorities with assigned administrative tasks, on the other hand, they exert their own tasks. Among the tasks assigned include, for example, responsibility for unemployment benefit II, together with the Federal Employment Agency, or the organization of the emergency services and civil protection. My tasks lie in health care ( district hospitals ), the school system ( operating expenses support for high schools, junior high schools and vocational schools ), and waste management.

The district is administered and managed by the council and its chairman, the District elected to six years.

Communities

The communities are both lower administrative authorities with assigned administrative tasks, as well as independent institutions with their own tasks. Among the tasks assigned include the issuing of passports, issuance of tax cards and participation in state and federal elections. My tasks lie in social work ( maintenance of kindergartens ), water supply and public safety ( fire-brigade ).

In addition to the communities there is a special form the circle free cities that are legally on the same level as the districts and have a wider role than kreisangehorige communities. Alternative to the greater community, the merger of several smaller municipalities to an administrative community. In this case, the member municipalities merge their administrations, but remain legally and institutionally independent.

In addition to managing community exists as a form of communal cooperation nor the purpose association, which brings together several communities close to tasks that they could financially difficult to cope alone, to solve common ( eg water supply, sanitation).

The communities are organized on the basis of the South German council constitution. You will be directed and managed by the local council and its chairman, the mayor elected for six years. The (upper ) Mayor holds a strong position in this church order, as it implements the decisions of the Council, the local authority represents to the outside and is head of the municipal administration.

Parties and associations

Parties represented in the Bundestag

For the purposes of the concept of democracy, the parties have held the central position in the political life of the State. All the major parties are represented by national associations in Bavaria.

In the party system, the Christian Democrat -conservative CSU dominated as " hegemonic ", a term that the party researchers Alf Mintzel coined: Since the first state election in Bavaria in 1946, the CSU to the reign of William Hoegner (SPD, 1954-1957 ) the Prime Minister of the country. Except for elections in 1950, the CSU was also always the strongest force in the Bavarian Parliament, from 1962 to 2008 she ruled continuously by an absolute majority of seats.

In addition, the SPD and the Greens are regularly represented in Parliament. While the SPD and FDP in any other West German state as small as feed have in Bavaria, the election results of the GREENS are usually slightly below the national average. The FDP fails due to the dominance of the CSU mostly at the five - percent hurdle, being made in the Bundestag elections in Bavaria significantly better results than in state elections; this is due to a so-called " Leihstimmenkampagne " on the part of CSU voters at the state level. Although the party affiliation of the voter has been greatly reduced to a total of a particular party in Germany, is only partially observed in Bavaria this trend; the CSU to continue to bind the majority of voters on the succeed.

Coalition considerations played at the country level through the decades of one-party government of the CSU only a minor role; after the state elections of 2008, the SPD attempted in the face of changing majorities to forge a " coalition of opposition " to replace the CSU.

Other parties

In the Bavarian state elections achieved factions since the eighties, very good for a tract of land election results. The Republicans reached there since then results between one and five percent. The Free Voters - the show since 1998, also at the country level presence - were around four per cent, before the third- largest party for the first time moved into the state legislature in 2008. The ODP is relatively constant since 1990 at around two and the Bayern party at the same time about one percent.

Bavarian municipal law allows many smaller parties or voter groups to be present in municipal or county parliaments. At the municipal level, the Free Voters are a serious alternative that favored by the personal local elections in Bavaria in the local elections always win around 15 % of the vote, can provide Mayor and even some district administrators in many communities. Smaller parties such as the ODP or Republicans or nonpartisan voter communities also have a good chance of being able to place some elected representatives in local councils or county days. In particular, the ODP knows how to make even extra-parliamentary opposition effective work with the help of direct democratic instrument of the referendum. So she initiated, for example, in the years 1996 and 1997, called the referendum " Lean State without Senate " that caused the dissolution of the Bavarian Senate for New Year's Day 1999/2000 1998.

Bavaria in the Federal Government

Subject to the conditions set out in Article 20 GG structural principles the Federal Republic of Germany is a federal state, in which the countries are in principle to participate in the legislative process (see eternity clause). Article 30 of the Basic Law provides that the exercise of state power in general with the countries where the Basic Law does not derogating.

Legislative power is divided in Articles 70 et seq between federal and state governments after the enumerative principle. The exclusive legislative competence of the Länder comprises broadly the cultural and educational policy, the media, the state and local administration and the police. About the Bundesrat, in which Bavaria has six votes, acts of the legislature in the country in alliance with.

In the federal elections of Bavaria sent always 80 to 95 deputies to Berlin and there, especially in the Union Group by the special status of the CSU as an independent party, a particular weight.

Bayern in Europe

Countries can also participate in European Union affairs in which responsibilities of the countries would be affected through the Bundesrat. Moreover, Bavaria maintains a country office in Brussels in a central location between the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions, and thus enabling it to occur locally for its interests.

In order to secure the influence of the countries in Europe sufficiently, the Bavarian government began in 1992 massively committed to create the later Committee of the Regions on a European level and was its Secretary General benennen.Dieser is the EU Commission in an advisory capacity and needs, for example in education and Religious Affairs be consulted.

In the European elections Bayern sent to the EU enlargement always twelve to 16 deputies. 2004, there are only eleven, nine of which the CSU and the SPD two sets. In the 7th parliamentary term (2009-2014 ), there are 15 Bavarian MPs: Albert Dess (CSU ), Ismali Ertug (SPD ), Markus Ferber (CSU ), Gerald Häfner ( Alliance 90/The Greens ), Thomas Händel (The Left ) Nadja Hirsch ( FDP), Monika Meier hollow (CSU ), Martin Kastler (CSU ), Wolfgang Kreissl -Dörfler (SPD ), Barbara Lochbihler ( alliance 90/The Greens ), Angelika Niebler (CSU ), Bernd Posselt (CSU ), Manfred Weber ( CSU), Anja Weisgerber (CSU ), Kerstin West stake (SPD). Bavarian Member of the Committee of the Regions is currently the Head of the Representation in Brussels Emilia Müller.

Free state (government) Landtag of Bavaria Maximilianeum Bayerische Staatskanzlei Cabinet Seehofer I Verfassungsbeschwerde Statute Cumulative voting Panachage Emergency management Municipal council Bundesrat of Germany Manfred Weber

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