2019/03/14 by Christian Breunig, Tinette Schnatterer · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Computational and Text Analysis Methods
paper · doi:10.1093/oso/9780198835332.003.0010
openalex publication_date 2019/03/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/19
Abstract This chapter describes the German political system and connects its working to agenda-setting theories. Given its institutional configuration, politics and policy-making in Germany is typically described in terms of deliberation, moderation, and gridlock. We introduce six data series—public opinion, party platforms, policy processes, government speeches, parliamentary questions, bills and laws—that comprise agenda-setting in Germany. The data for these political activities are obtained from official sources. We delineate the processing and coding of these series. A brief application that examines the German reunification process illustrates the potential of the database. The illustration shows that reunification has not really been politicized but occupied considerable agenda space in government speeches and legislation.