Blog #5 Difference Between U.S. and German Politics

There are several key differences between American and German politics. For example, the head of government, the Chancellor, is elected by the lower house of Parliament, the Bundestag. Our President is elected via the Electoral College. The Chancellor may face a vote of confidence. If they fail the vote, then Parliament must elect a new leader. But there is one thing about German politics that differs from American politics and it is for this reason that I feel that Germany has a better-run political system:
The Grand Coaltion.
Every Chancellor must ensure that they have over fifty percent of the Bundestag. If the majority party in Parliament does not garner over fifty percent of the vote, then they must team up with a smaller party to get over that barrier. I like this for two reasons. First, this really helps out the smaller parties. When these parties are given a say in how things are run and they have less than 10% of the Bundestag representation, it is a very big deal. Secondly, this really helps speed up the government, making it more efficient.
We discussed in class how the Germans get over 80% of legislation passed through their government, meanwhile, "we suck" - Casey Burns. I also think that there is better representation of the people in Germany. There are no 'wasted' votes (just wasted people). The percent of votes that a party receives is proportional to the number of seats they get in Parliament. This means that voting for a smaller party is no longer throwing away your vote like in the U.S.
Don't get me wrong, I think our system is pretty good. I mean, if we were not efficient in what we do, would we have been the world's leading super-power for this long? I just think the Germans are more efficient than we are. I also like that the Germans have made sure that there are several checks and balances on power so as to prevent one person from gaining too much power, as Hitler did in the 1930s. It would have been interesting if we could have installed the constructive vote of confidence in our system a couple years ago to see George W. sweat it out for a while before he got the boot.