German Political Parties: Correlation between Political Positioning and Social Composition of Parliamentary Groups

The article analyses the degree of correspondence between the political positioning of German parties and the social composition of their parliamentary groups in the 20th Bundestag. The study is based on German parties’ manifestos prepared for elec-tions in 2021, as well as the authors' dataset...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Maria Khorolskaya, Egor Katashevich
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Europe 2025-04-01
Series:Современная Европа
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sov-europe.ru/images/pdf/2025/2-2025/Khorolskaya-2-25.pdf
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849427860055392256
author Maria Khorolskaya
Egor Katashevich
author_facet Maria Khorolskaya
Egor Katashevich
author_sort Maria Khorolskaya
collection DOAJ
description The article analyses the degree of correspondence between the political positioning of German parties and the social composition of their parliamentary groups in the 20th Bundestag. The study is based on German parties’ manifestos prepared for elec-tions in 2021, as well as the authors' dataset containing information about the socio-demographic characteristics of members of the Parliament (gender, age, origin), their religion, marital status, and whether they have children. The authors select key programmatic points that can be reflected in the social composition of the parlia-mentary groups and then rank the parties according to the radicalism of their state-ments. According to the hypothesis, the ordinal place of the party in these rankings associates with the structure of representation in the party. The study found depar-ture from traditional gender roles being combined with a greater representation of women. Supporting youth corresponds to a higher share of young deputies, and the ethnocultural diversity endorsement positively correlates with the percentage of migrants. Traditionalist agenda increases the likelihood a party member declares its own religiosity and the presence of children. At the same time, the more tolerant the party is toward Islam, the higher the percentage of Muslims is. In addition, it was found that in parties that build their identity around specialized issues, this identity is reflected in the social composition of its deputies. Thus, the emphasis on the pro-tection of Christian values by the CDU/CSU corresponds to a higher proportion of Christians. Among the Left, which pays special attention to the new federal lands, eastern Germans have higher representation.
format Article
id doaj-art-32ee62010d3d4e5b83558e52ef65fadd
institution Kabale University
issn 0201-7083
language English
publishDate 2025-04-01
publisher Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Europe
record_format Article
series Современная Европа
spelling doaj-art-32ee62010d3d4e5b83558e52ef65fadd2025-08-20T03:28:54ZengRussian Academy of Sciences, Institute of EuropeСовременная Европа0201-70832025-04-012385210.31857/S0201708325020044German Political Parties: Correlation between Political Positioning and Social Composition of Parliamentary GroupsMaria Khorolskaya0Egor Katashevich1Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations Russian Academy of SciencesPrimakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations Russian Academy of SciencesThe article analyses the degree of correspondence between the political positioning of German parties and the social composition of their parliamentary groups in the 20th Bundestag. The study is based on German parties’ manifestos prepared for elec-tions in 2021, as well as the authors' dataset containing information about the socio-demographic characteristics of members of the Parliament (gender, age, origin), their religion, marital status, and whether they have children. The authors select key programmatic points that can be reflected in the social composition of the parlia-mentary groups and then rank the parties according to the radicalism of their state-ments. According to the hypothesis, the ordinal place of the party in these rankings associates with the structure of representation in the party. The study found depar-ture from traditional gender roles being combined with a greater representation of women. Supporting youth corresponds to a higher share of young deputies, and the ethnocultural diversity endorsement positively correlates with the percentage of migrants. Traditionalist agenda increases the likelihood a party member declares its own religiosity and the presence of children. At the same time, the more tolerant the party is toward Islam, the higher the percentage of Muslims is. In addition, it was found that in parties that build their identity around specialized issues, this identity is reflected in the social composition of its deputies. Thus, the emphasis on the pro-tection of Christian values by the CDU/CSU corresponds to a higher proportion of Christians. Among the Left, which pays special attention to the new federal lands, eastern Germans have higher representation.http://www.sov-europe.ru/images/pdf/2025/2-2025/Khorolskaya-2-25.pdfgermanypolitical partiespolitical ideologiespolitical elites
spellingShingle Maria Khorolskaya
Egor Katashevich
German Political Parties: Correlation between Political Positioning and Social Composition of Parliamentary Groups
Современная Европа
germany
political parties
political ideologies
political elites
title German Political Parties: Correlation between Political Positioning and Social Composition of Parliamentary Groups
title_full German Political Parties: Correlation between Political Positioning and Social Composition of Parliamentary Groups
title_fullStr German Political Parties: Correlation between Political Positioning and Social Composition of Parliamentary Groups
title_full_unstemmed German Political Parties: Correlation between Political Positioning and Social Composition of Parliamentary Groups
title_short German Political Parties: Correlation between Political Positioning and Social Composition of Parliamentary Groups
title_sort german political parties correlation between political positioning and social composition of parliamentary groups
topic germany
political parties
political ideologies
political elites
url http://www.sov-europe.ru/images/pdf/2025/2-2025/Khorolskaya-2-25.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT mariakhorolskaya germanpoliticalpartiescorrelationbetweenpoliticalpositioningandsocialcompositionofparliamentarygroups
AT egorkatashevich germanpoliticalpartiescorrelationbetweenpoliticalpositioningandsocialcompositionofparliamentarygroups