Paradigms of Electoral Law. Electoral law design between personal and party representation

• Applicant: Dr. Fabian Michl
• Subject Area: Public Law
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 564330865

The study reconstructs the influence of the paradigms of ‘personal’ and ‘party representation on the design of German electoral law. Instead of the usual differentiation between majority and proportional representation, it develops a new interpretive scheme that focuses on the theoretical foundations of electoral law. This scheme shows that electoral law design is not only a question of power, but is also characterised by ideas of representation condensed into electoral paradigms: on the one hand, the paradigm of personal representation, according to which the aim is to bring the best personalities into parliament, and on the other hand, the paradigm of party representation, which conceives of the election as an expression of party-political preferences. The study shows in a differentiated way how the actors involved in the design of electoral law—parliaments, governments, parties, but also courts—are influenced by these opposing paradigms. Although power-political interests often play a role in designing electoral laws, they are rarely the sole determining factor for a particular electoral system. By distinguishing between power interests and paradigms, the study provides a basis for a theoretically sound critique of electoral legislation that goes beyond the traditional focus on power issues. At the same time, it contributes to scientifically informed electoral policies without, however, engaging in politics itself. The study adopts a historical perspective: it traces the influence of the paradigms of electoral law from the first modern elections to the present day. It is based on a phase model organised according to the respective dominance of the paradigms. In the first phase, personal representation dominated, but this came under increasing pressure with the establishment of organised parties. The paradigm shift towards party representation took place at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is consolidated in the Weimar Republic, in which party representation guided the design of the electoral system. The second paradigm shift took place after the Second World War and lead to a contradictory coexistence of party and personal representation in the early Federal Republic. This ‘paradigm competition’ is stabilised above all by the Federal Constitutional Court, whose electoral jurisprudence is historically and critically classified in the study. The third paradigm shift began with the differentiation of the party system in the 2000s and again points in the direction of party elections. It reached its provisional conclusion with the electoral law reform of 2023, which was confirmed by the Federal Constitutional Court in 2024. Although the period of investigation thus extends into the present, the historical approach creates an analytical distance and makes the study compatible with electoral law discourses beyond the daily political debate.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants