April 2011| No. 7 Political Parties, Membership Mobilisation and Power Management ­The Example of the Federal Republic of Germany * by Gerd Mielke 1. P ARTIES IN A C OMPETITIVE S YSTEM Parties and their members have been a hot issue in Ger­many for at least two or three decades now, and criti­cisms of German parties and their role as instruments of political representation and fields of political participa­tion has grown steadily. These criticisms are not merely an academic enterprise restricted to the elusive commu­nity of party researchers in their ivory towers. They are also – some would say: above all – a matter of public and political concern, because the parties are the back­bones of German politics. Political life – that is, the ac­tivities of individual citizens and social groups, as well as the policy programs and proceedings of the government on all levels of decision-making in the Federal Republic – has always been centred around political parties. Their vital role in the political process is even laid down in the »Basic Law«, the German constitution. Many empirical studies in recent years indicate that political parties have been finding it more difficult to bring citizens and voters into the political process and to create strong and lasting feelings of political identifica­tion and political trust among their supporters than thirty or forty years ago. In addition, the German parties no longer seem to be particularly attractive organisations of political participation for their members. Two indicators clearly reflect this representation and participation crisis: a steady decline in the turnout in all kinds of elections and a steady decline in party membership. In order to better understand this diagnosis and the discussion of possible solutions it would be helpful to examine a few basic features of German parties, their political functions and their historical background. 1.1. The Electoral System and the Consequences for Parliamentary Representation German political parties operate within a competitive party system: that is, the parties compete for the votes of the electorate in federal and state elections. These elections take place every four years at the national level and every five years at the state level. In Germany, fed­eral and state elections are run in accordance with pro­portional representation. Under the rules of this electoral system the parties’ shares of votes are transformed into proportional shares of parliamentary mandates. How­Dr. Gerd Mielke is a Professor of Political Science at Mainz University and Head of Staff of the Unit»Foreign Relations of State Universities« at the Rhineland-Palatinate State Ministry of Education and Culture, Mainz. * This paper was presented at the international workshop“Political Parties – Between Disenchantment of Citizens with Politics and Mobilisation for Political Participation”, Shanghai, Jun. 11, 2010, organised jointly by the Shanghai Administration Institute and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.