@article{2018:hnermund:kleine_anf,
title = {Kleine Anfragen im Deutschen Bundestag. Zu den Funktionen des Frageinstruments am Beispiel der 17 . Wahlperiode},
year = {2018},
note = {Minor questions can be seen as one of the oldest and the most
important tools for oversight by the opposition parties in the German
Bundestag . The parliamentary statistics at the end of each
legislative term give evidence how frequently they are applied .
However, their legal status in the rules of procedure of the German
Bundestag offers a certain leeway concerning the specific use of these
questions by the MPs . There is reason to believe that they can fulfil
other functions as well . The content analysis of 147 minor questions
supports this assumption . Besides control, the minor questions
contribute to fulfilling the function of representation . Moreover,
they can serve as a tool for agenda-control . On the one hand, they
provide a good opportunity for communicating district concerns to the
government and to the ministerial bureaucracy . On the other hand,
they can be used by oppositional parties to set the agenda and
publicly confront the government with controversial issues .
Furthermore, the content analysis revealed concrete items of
parliamentary oversight and allows conclusions regarding MPs’
specialization in their respective parliamentary groups .},
journal = {ZParl Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen},
pages = {455--476},
author = {Hünermund, Sebastian},
volume = {49},
number = {3}
}