Konrad Adenauer School for Young Politicians (KASYP) - Batch 12

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Bicameralism and Balance of Power in Germany: The interplay between State and Federal Politics

Now, the 12th cohort, which started in spring 2021, is scheduled to visit Erfurt and Berlin in Germany in September 2024. Participants from India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, the Philippines and Thailand amongst others are to take part in a one-week information and workshop program. In the light of the upcoming State Elections in Thuringia (1st of September) various aspects of party organization in the states (Länder) and on the federal level in Germany, their interplay, parliamentary work at national, regional and local level, local politics, European integration, social market economy and European history will be presented and discussed.

Since people in Asia also experience democracy and politics first and foremost at the local level, KASYP participants should not only get to know party organization at the national level during the dialog program, but also at the state and municipal levels in particular. This is particularly important in Asia, where local democracy is usually subject to considerable restrictions. Many citizens are therefore deprived of important opportunities for participation or are completely unaware of them. The distributions that go hand in hand with the fact that parties, as the key intermediary institutions between citizens and the state, also organize themselves on a permanent basis at the local and regional level, both to represent the concerns of citizens and to create better conditions for themselves to participate successfully in the political process, are to be made clear here.

The dialogue program is an important complement to the activities of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Asia. On the one hand, there are only very limited real-life opportunities for party organization on a European scale on the Asian continent. In almost all countries on the continent, party activities are concentrated during election campaigns and serve strong party leaders to take or retain office.

Second, the structures of democratic self-government and participation are for the most part only very rudimentarily developed. Even in democratic systems in Asia, parties are generally weakly organized and often serve particular interests.

Despite these structural weaknesses, parties are important vehicles of the democratic process in Asia as well. Here, too, parties should perform the classic functions, such as aggregating and articulating social interests, mediating between state and society, stimulating political participation and, finally, selecting political personnel. Particularly in states on the democratic threshold, with still relatively young democratic processes and institutions, party organization is still precarious. At the same time, however, it is particularly important, and parties are sometimes very receptive to input. Approaches of continuous party work, program work, internal and external communication, a strengthening of the local base and greater local political commitment are to be promoted.