Dear Friends of Verfassungsblog,
While the world at large watched in horror how unfamiliarly and worryingly ineffective Germany appears these days when it comes to forming a stable government, some Germans, far from being shocked, seemed even almost elated. It was the perspective of a minority government that seemed to galvanize not a few Merkel-weary Germans – the idea of a government that seeks a majority for every law it wants to have passed in parliament on a continuous basis. How exciting! How invigorating, how liberating! Parliament will be back as a place where policy issues of national and international consequence are fought over in a clash of arguments! Debate at last! Polarization at last! After twelve long, dusty Merkel years of pragmatic muddling-through and systematic elimination of all matters of controversy, the sky is finally breaking open, the suffocating fog is clearing up, the withered institutions of public opinion and democratic decision-making are gaining new colour and new strength.
At the beginning of the week, FLORIAN MEINEL took, with gusto, the opposite position on Verfassungsblog (in German): The venture of forming a minority government, he warns, would disrupt the established way of functioning of the parliamentary system in Germany in ways that are difficult to foresee. It’s not that it can’t or mustn’t be done in these times of ever growing numbers of parties represented in the Bundestag, making coalition building ever more difficult, but one should be clear about the implications: The bulk of the legislative agenda of the government is planned and routinely executed in the interplay between parliament, chancellery and the ministries. If that interplay stops to work, we can’t just shut down the legislative agenda which is required not least because of the extensive jurisdiction in Karlsruhe on the reservation of the law …
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