Subnational constitutional politics: Patterns and variables

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Astrid Lorenz
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2013 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 242401932

The project Constitutional politics in the German Länder: Patterns and variables is to be finished in a final year of funding. In the third year of this research project we are going to compare the case studies that we have finished so far. Hence, we will examine the epistemic question of the project whether and to what extent there is a causal link between the multilevel system and the degree of fragmentation of the party system on the one hand, and constitutional politics in the German states on the other. It must be noted, though, that our research partly produced contradictory empirical findings. In the last year of the project we will strive to accommodating these finding. Yet, we still assume that the dynamics of party competition in the Länder reflects in the content, the timing, and the success of pursued constitutional policies. At the same time, we hypothesize that a possible congruity of governmental constellations at national and state level impacts on constitutional policies in the Länder. However, we aim to integrate our findings in a nuanced model of explanation.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants