Der Kampf um das höchste Amt im Staat

Risk vs Reward Strategies in Indirect Presidential Elections: Political Parties and the Selection of Presidential Electors in Germany, 1949–2017

“…To date, ten elections have been conducted in just a single round and only three elections required three rounds (yet none resulted in the election of a president with less than 50% of votes cast). (Billing, 1995;Helms, 1998;Rudzio, 2000) and Horst Köhler in 2004 (Jesse, 2004;Gloe, 2010;Strohmeier and Wittlinger, 2010) despite the FDP's participation in the federal government in 1979 and the CDU/CSU's opposition status in the Bundestag on both occasions. Furthermore, in-depth descriptions of the candidate nomination process have highlighted frequent appeals from opposition parties to support a joint candidacy or the struggle within government coalitions to agree on a candidate, both being complicated by the potential of alternative coalitions in the Federal Convention (e.g.…”

“…The case of Germany -where intense competition over the presidency is equally commonplace (Braun, 1993;Billing, 1995;Decker and Jesse, 2013;Gloe, 2010;Henkel, 2009) -offers a particularly interesting perspective on the question of how political parties strike the balance between electoral success and exploiting the election's publicity potential. The German president is elected by the Bundesversammlung (Federal Convention), an electoral college consisting of the members of the Bundestag and an equal number of electors nominated by Länder (state) parliaments.…”