In Germany, the state list or state electoral proposal, (
''German'': Landesliste or Landeswahlvorschlag) is the list of candidates of a party for the election to the
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the German Federalism, federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representat ...
, or the elections to those
state parliaments with
mixed-member proportional representation and for the
European Parliament elections
Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are considered the second largest democratic elections in the world after India's.
Unti ...
if a party decides on a state rather than a federal list. In contrast to the vote on the candidates of the
constituencies
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polit ...
, who are elected directly (
Direktmandat), voters can usually only vote on the candidates on the state list as a whole by voting for a party with their second vote. Depending on the distribution of seats in parliament, the corresponding number of candidates in the order of the list of the respective party are considered elected.
The possibility of distributing votes to specific candidates on a state list is called
cumulation and
panachage
Panachage (, from French meaning "blend, mixture") is the name given to a procedure provided for in several open-list variants of the party-list proportional representation system. It gives voters more than one vote in the same ballot and allows ...
and can change the order. This has been introduced in some
states
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* '' State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our ...
, such as ,
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie H ...
and , but has only been discussed in others.
Almost all candidates from the top spots on the state list, including those from the established, smaller parties, are also candidates in one constituency. This means that they are likely to enter parliament even if they do not win their constituency. This is why established politicians or politicians who are supported by the party for various reasons (age, gender, origin, lateral entrants, etc.) almost always occupy the top spots on the respective state list. If the candidates win the constituency in this case, the candidate on the next spot on the state list who was unable to win a constituency or who did not stand in any constituency is considered.
The state list is drawn up at the party congresses in accordance with the . There are no federal lists (in the sense of nationwide candidate lists) in federal elections. The list places are distributed according to the second vote results in the respective states.
Political parties that are not among the established parties must support their election proposal, i.e. a state list filled with people, by collecting signatures after it has been announced to the . In the case of a
federal election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...
, the minimum number of signatures depends on the number of eligible voters in the state in the last federal election and is a maximum of 2,000. Different provisions apply to elections to
state parliaments. A party that wishes to represent a
recognized minority is exempt from this rule at both federal and state level.
[{{cite web, access-date=2017-07-14 , date=2017 , title=Informationen für Wahlbewerberinnen und Wahlbewerber zur Teilnahme an der Bundestagswahl , url=https://www.bundeswahlleiter.de/bundestagswahlen/2017/informationen-wahlbewerber.html#9a2120b5-d1df-495b-8288-7bbc7c8365da , website= bundeswahlleiter.de]
See also
*
Apportionment (politics)
Apportionment is the process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions, such as states or parties, entitled to representation. This page presents the general principles and issues related to apportionme ...
*
Electoral system
An electoral system or voting system is a set of rules that determine how elections and referendums are conducted and how their results are determined. Electoral systems are used in politics to elect governments, while non-political elections m ...
*
Suffrage
*
Electoral list
An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...
References
External links
Landesliste, Glossar, Deutscher Bundestag
Party lists
Politics of Germany