TNAG-2217-FCO40-3184-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 51

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composition of the cabinet, participating in the integration of the federal system of government, and affecting the interpretation of constitutional law. An assessment of Parliament requires a consideration of the relationships between the Bundestag and the other principal institutions of government in Germany.

Constitutionally the Chancellor is elected by the Bundestag and dismissible by it, and the Chancellor appoints his cabinet colleagues. The reality is more complicated, giving to the electorate and the political parties in and out of Parliament a significant influence. The election of the members of Parliament sets the parameters within which governing coalitions are formed. The election turns to a considerable extent on the personality of the leaders of the major parties who are its "Chancellor candidates." To that extent the cabinet and particularly the Chancellor can be seen to have a direct relationship to the electorate. However, to interpret this as a sign of "plebiscitary" government is highly misleading. The Chancellor is not directly elected and his term in office is not equivalent to the term of Parliament; in fact four out of the five changes in the Chancellorship that have occurred in the past forty years happened within the parliamentary term without recourse to the electorate. The governing coalition emerges from bargaining among the parties, which nominate the ministers to which they are entitled, but the parties tend to choose leading members of the Bundestag.

The electorate selects Parliament and Parliament is therefore a central instrument of the popular will. The parties effectively select the ministers. But once the influence of the electorate and the role of the parties is acknowledged, we must recognize the importance in historical perspective of the establishment of the principle that the Chancellor and the cabinet are chosen from among members of the Bundestag and usually from among its most experienced, senior leaders. The exceptions are few and relatively unimportant. The average cabinet member has served nine years in the Bundestag, in other words, more than two terms, before assuming a ministerial position. Furthermore, nearly one-third of the members of the cabinet have been drawn from among the leaders of the parliamentary parties and the committee chairs in the Bundestag, therefore from among the most influential and effective members of Parliament. The importance of this development is that the political leaders in the cabinet share with the political leaders in the Bundestag an understanding of the norms of parliamentary behavior. They share a common institutional experience and from this a common sense of what is politically feasible. Finally, they are tied to each other by a sense of collegiality, based on common membership in the Bundestag, a sense that is strengthened as ministers return to