@article{2015:tiefenbach:das_bremer,
title = {Das Bremer Bürgerschaftswahlrecht in der Kritik},
year = {2015},
note = {On May 10, 2015 the federal state of Bremen applied an electoral
system with five votesand the possibility of accumulating and
cross-voting for the second time. The participationrate declined to
50.2 percent, the lowest level ever. Contrary to the assumption that
thecomplicated electoral system is responsible for this, it seems that
voters appreciate the options the new system offers: Slightly more
than one third of them votes in the traditionalway and gives all five
votes to the list of candidates of one party only. Overall the
numberof votes given for the list of candidates decreased, but the
number of personal votes forparticular candidates remained stable even
though the participation rate fell. Parties, especiallythe Social
Democrats, criticize the voting system since many candidates from
lowerranks receive a seat through personal votes, which complicates
working in the parliamentarygroup. Moreover, the gender quota of the
list of candidates is messed up, and thenumber of candidates under the
age of 25 has dropped. Therefore Social Democrats andLeft Party are
trying to lower the influence of the personal votes. On the other
hand: thepersonal votes bring election campaigns closer to the
citizens. The number of deputies fromimmigration families rises; the
median age of the deputies decreases. Contrary to this
criticism,“Mehr Demokratie”, a non-governmental organization that
initiated the current votingsystem, tends to give more importance to
the personal votes. Maybe the electoral issuewill have to be decided
by a referendum. [ZParl, vol. 46 (2015), no. 3, pp. 578 – 588]},
journal = {ZParl Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen},
pages = {578--588},
author = {Tiefenbach, Paul},
volume = {46},
number = {3}
}