Political System of the Federal Republic of Germany
Politisches System der Bundesrepublik Deutschland(German)
Coat of arms of Germany
Polity type
Federal democratic parliamentary republic
Constitution
Basic Law for Germany
Legislative branch
Name
Bundestag and Bundesrat
Type
Bicameral
Meeting place
Reichstag building
Presiding officer
Bärbel Bas, President of the Bundestag
Executive branch
Head of State
Title
Federal President
Currently
Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Appointer
Bundesversammlung
Head of Government
Title
Federal Chancellor
Currently
Olaf Scholz
Appointer
President
Cabinet
Name
Cabinet of Germany
Current cabinet
Scholz cabinet
Leader
Chancellor
Deputy leader
Vice Chancellor
Appointer
President
Headquarters
Chancellery
Ministries
15
Judicial branch
Name
Judiciary of Germany
Federal Constitutional Court
Chief judge
Stephan Harbarth
Seat
Seat of the Court, Karlsruhe
This article is part of a series on the
Politics of Germany
Constitution (Basic Law)
Federal Constitutional Court
Human rights
Head of State
President of Germany
Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD)
Executive
Chancellor of Germany (list)
Olaf Scholz (SPD)
Vice Chancellor of Germany
Robert Habeck (Grüne)
Cabinet
Scholz
Federal agencies
Legislature
Bundestag
constituencies
members
Bundesrat
Vermittlungsausschuss
Gemeinsamer Ausschuss
Judiciary
Federal Constitutional Court
Federal courts
Ordinary
Administrative
Fiscal
Labour
Social
Joint Senate
Other courts
Subdivisions
State (Land)
Minister president
State Parliament (Landtag)
composition
Regierungsbezirk
District (Kreis)
list
Collective municipality (Amt)
Municipality (Gemeinde)
list
Elections
Electoral system
Political parties
Referendums
Coalitions
Federal Convention (Bundesversammlung)
Presidential elections
Weimar Republic (1919–1933)
1919
1925
1932
East Germany (1949–1960)
1949
1953
1957
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1954
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1964
1969
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1979
1984
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2010
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2022
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1919
1920
1924 (May)
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1969
1972
1976
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Next
European elections
1979
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State and local politics
State Politics
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Germany is a democratic and federal parliamentary republic, where federal legislative power is vested in the Bundestag (the parliament of Germany) and the Bundesrat (the representative body of the Länder, Germany's regional states).
The federal system has, since 1949, been dominated by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The judiciary of Germany is independent of the executive and the legislature, while it is common for leading members of the executive to be members of the legislature as well. The political system is laid out in the 1949 constitution, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law), which remained in effect with minor amendments after German reunification in 1990.
The constitution emphasizes the protection of individual liberty in an extensive catalogue of human and civil rights and divides powers both between the federal and state levels and between the legislative, executive and judicial branches.
West Germany was a founding member of the European Community in 1958, which became the EU in 1993. Germany is part of the Schengen Area, and has been a member of the eurozone since 1999. It is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G7, the G20 and the OECD.
The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Germany a "full democracy" in 2022.[1] According to the V-Dem Democracy indices Germany was 2023 the 15th most electoral democratic country in the world.[2]
^"Democracy Index 2022: Frontline democracy and the battle for Ukraine" (PDF). Economist Intelligence Unit. 2023. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
^V-Dem Institute (2023). "The V-Dem Dataset". Retrieved 14 October 2023.
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