Germany

This chapter analyzes the institutional foundation of parliamentary debates in the German Bundestag. Based on 89,920 speeches given between 1990 and 2017, we explore factors influencing debate participation. Some systematic patterns of debate participation emerge: We show that policy expertise is a strong predictor of debate participation as many debates are dominated by the members of the respective working groups of the parliamentary party groups. Moreover, we show that government members and party leaders give more speeches than backbenchers. We find no significant differences between MPs from single-member districts and party lists, which is hardly surprising, given the complex contamination of electoral incentives between the two types of MPs. Personal characteristics of MPs also matter as MP’s gender influences the participation in debates.