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You can take away power from the Bundesrat. Not a good idea, IMO. Or you have each state's Bundesrat delegation elected by the voters, in state-wide elections, in analogy to the US Senate. I'd strongly prefer the second option. But I must confess I doubt that either one of these will become reality.

If you can't convince them, confuse them. (Harry S. Truman)
by brainwave on Sun Sep 18th, 2005 at 12:15:23 AM EST
This is not necessarily about taking away power from the Bundesrat. Or the Bundestag. A federal reform would rather have to disentangle political competences. A tax reform bill should be passed by the Bundestag without the Bundesrat's possibility to veto. And the Länder should be able to shape education policy without the Bund interfering. To name just two of many fields in which competences have become blurred.

This would have at least two big advantages: Firstly, blockading whole reform bills would not be as easy as it is now, given a cohabitation scenario between Bundestag and Bundesrat. Secondly, politics would become more transparent: Voters in regional elections would not be expected to simultaneously decide on federal politics, which now is the case. In the recent past, regional elections have become more and more hypocritical because their formal quality (electing a regional parliament) and their factual quality (also influencing federal decision-making via the Bundesrat) were incongruent. By stopping this, the task of voting would become more easy, more transparent and, hence, more democratic.

by Saturday (geckes(at)gmx.net) on Sun Sep 18th, 2005 at 07:26:42 AM EST
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