Parliamentary Democracy Versus Direct Democracy? Challenging Liberal, Representative Democracy in the German Bundestag During the Anti-nuclear Demonstrations of 1995–1997

Abstract

In German politics, concepts of parliamentarism and the relationship between parliamentarism and democracy have evolved since the nineteenth century. Politicians, citizens and scholars have regularly redefined and challenged conceptions of parliament’s task of representation, public debate and legitimate decision-making in different historical circumstances. One such crucial phase in re-evaluating and redefining conceptions of democracy in Germany was the second half of the 1990s, when a vigorous anti-nuclear movement arose. In the German federal parliament, members had to explain their understandings of German democracy. The tradition of liberal, representative democracy was in a conflict with the demands of more direct citizens’ involvement in political decision-making. Both sides of the conflict laid claims to competing forms of the concept ‘democracy’ as their source of legitimacy.