Multi-level Party Politics during the Grand Coalition: Electoral Outcomes at Länder Level

In Germany, Grand Coalitions of the two major parties - the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) - generally have a bad reputation. Hence, the CDU/CSU-SPD government under Angela Merkel (2005-2009) was neither the parties' nor the citizens' preferred choice, its performance was seen quite critical from the outset, and it was finished without further ado after the 2009 federal election. Has the Grand Coalition 2005-2009 been a single episode or rather a turning point for German politics? This book provides a retrospective of the first Merkel government, an analysis of the 2009 election and an account of its prospective consequences. Abstract of this chapter: As in all federal countries, party politics in Germany occurs in a multilevel setting. Parliamentary elections take place at the national level (Bund) every four years and in each of the sixteen states (Länder) every four to five years. As these elections are not necessarily held on the same date, German parties and voters are exposed to an almost permanent political dispute. At the same time, the electoral arenas at national and regional levels have been more closely intertwined than in most federal democracies. Such structural interconnectedness of Bund and Länder has long produced some characteristic effects on the multilevel party politics. On one hand, Länder elections have not been seen as distinct political events determined by regional issues. On the other hand, changes in the Länder governments may alter the party composition in the Bundesrat. In other words, election outcomes at the Länder level have been the main cause for “divided government” in Germany. After unification, however, the German party system underwent significant changes. The Grand Coalition formed in autumn 2005 was an unintended consequence of this party system change: the impossibility to form a majority coalition including one of the catch-all parties (CDU/CSU or SPD) and one of the smaller parties (FDP or Greens) gave way to a government with the two major parties as the last possible option. Whether such transformation has also changed the traditional multilevel linkages remains a disputed issue. In any case, there is good reason to assume that a Grand Coalition government at the federal level provides a specific landscape and peculiar conditions which are likely to affect multilevel party politics. The present chapter explores whether the 2005–2009 Grand Coalition produced some characteristic impact on the Länder elections. For this purpose, we begin by outlining the theoretical effects on electoral behavior and government formation at Länder level caused by a federal government comprising the two largest parties. The second part provides a comprehensive survey of the “regional contexts,” that is, the party systems in individual Länder. We then analyze the political outcomes of the sixteen L änder elections held between 2006 and 2009, addressing both the top-down influence at the federal level and the regional contexts’ relevant factors. A short conclusion summarizes our findings.