Melanie Kintz, Ph.D.
melaniekintz@web.de
Technische Universität Chemnitz
City: Leipzig
Country: Germany
Research Interests
Legislative Politics
Elections, Election Administration, and Voting Behavior
Gender and Politics
Race, Ethnicity and Politics
Representation and Electoral Systems
Comparative Political Institutions
Political Elites
Political Leadership
Institutions And Legislatures
East Germany
European Migration Policy
Refugee Policy
Asylum Policy
Countries of Interest
Germany
United States
United Kingdom
Publications:
Journal Articles:
(with Malte Cordes, in German) The 2017 election brought significant changes to the membership of the German Bundestag. The parliament became much larger (709 seats) and the entry of 291 new deputies marked a new turnover record. Also, for the first time since unification, the German Bundestag is a six-party parliament, and the right-wing populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) entered the assembly for the first time. Following up on previous publications on the Bundestag’s occupational structure this article investigates the impact these changes had using the category scheme established by Adalbert Hess. Newcomers brought in more freelance professionals and business owners. Moreover, the presence of those previously employed by political parties or members of parliament increased, and occupational differences between MPs from east and west Germany persist, even among the younger members.
The failure of the FDP to reenter parliament after the 2013 Bundestag elections as well as the influx of over more than 200 new parliamentarians led to a shift in the occupational structure of the German Bundestag . Using Adalbert Hess’ occupational categories, this article continues the tradition of looking at trends in the occupational structure of German MPs, especially at differences in occupational backgrounds between East and West Germans with a focus on younger parliamentarians . More MPs are drawn from occupational fields close to politics, specifically from employees of parties and parliamentary party groups . The exit of the FDP led to fewer freelance professionals in the current Bundestag . Differences between East and West German MPs persist, as fewer Easterners are to be found in the ranks of higher administration as well as among freelancers and selfemployed; more often they are drawn from the employees of parties and parliamentary party groups .
The article investigates whether or not East German women in the German Bundestag had a double advantage in the recruitment to intra-parliamentary leadership positions in the period from 1994 to 2010. As the analysis shows, East German female parliamentarians only enjoyed such bonus in the parliamentary party group of the Left Party. In all other “Fraktionen” East German women are represented well, but below the level of their West German female and male colleagues. Furthermore this article sows that East German male parliamentarians are under-represented in intra-parliamentary leadership positions. And while some measurements indicate that the representation of East German representatives in leadership functions outside of the Left Party’s PPG has improved over time, this article shows that this is not due to a rising number of members with positions, but due to a declining number of members serving the Fraktionen Greens, FDP, SPD and CDU/CSU. Only in the Left Party we find a rising number of East German position holders.
This article examines how particular personal characteristics – sex, age, and Eastern German origin – influenced the careers of Angela Merkel and other Members of the Bundestag (MdB) in the 13th–16th electoral periods. It seeks to explain what kind of MdB are most likely to rise to parliamentary leadership functions. I argue that while Merkel's career is, in the German context, atypical, this fact makes Merkel typical of female chief executives in other countries, who have often come to power under exceptional circumstances.
The Landtag election in Saxony was one of three elections for state parliaments, all taking place on 30 August 2009. Out of the three, it was the one where there was little doubt that the CDU would, once again, appoint the next Prime Minister. Aside from the lack of surprise in the election outcome, this election had some historic moments. After the right-wing NPD was able to re-enter the Saxon Landtag, Saxony is the only German state parliament with six party parliamentary groups present. Further, turnout at this election was 52 per cent, an all-time low. The election ended Saxony's grand coalition and established its first CDU–FDP coalition. Within two weeks after the election, the new coalition contract was negotiated and the new government was sworn in so as to present a clear signal to national voters that a black and yellow coalition was a good and workable alternative to the grand coalition in the German Bundestag as well.
Book Chapters:
with Benjamin Hoehne in German Looks at the development and changes of socio-demographic profiles of German Bundestag members since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, specifically age, gender, education and occupational profile. Finds that there is a representational gap between the population and the MPs and explores explanatory approaches based on party organisation and recruitment research..
The 2013 Bundestag election saw a very high turnover in MPs. The FDP, which previously held ninety-three seats in the Bundestag did not get re-elected, and about 100 members had announced their retirement prior to the election. This article looks at whether the 217 new members have a significantly different sociodemographic and career profile to the re-elected members. While providing an insight into the sociodemographic profiles and career tracks of German MPs, the article finds that not much has changed in sociodemographic profiles and career tracks to the Bundestag. Changes in the occupational structure, however, signal that for more and more MPs politics is becoming a long-term career.
Other:
(with Jana Beinhorn, Simone Gasch, Birgit Glorius and Hanne Schneider) In this report we present an overview over the complex reception system in Germany. We find that due to Germany’s federal system, that there is not one reception system, but 16 different ones. Further, asylum procedure and reception governance are heavily interlinked and requires the cooperation and coordination of multiple actors, including non-state actors. Legislation passed in recent years, that allows for further differential treatment of asylum seekers by nationality will lead to further reception divergence, but one based on nationality. In this report we further investigate the interaction of actors in two local case studies – Chemnitz and Aachen.
This dissertation looks at the recruitment patterns to leadership positions in the German Bundestag from 1994 to 2006 with the objective of enhancing understanding of legislative careers and representation theory. Most research on political careers thus far has focused on who is elected to parliament, rather than on which legislators attain leadership positions. However, leadership positions within the parliament often come with special privileges and can serve as stepping stones to higher positions on the executive level. Based on a data set I compiled of all members who served in the Bundestag from 1994 to 2006, this dissertation looks at the socio-demographic profiles and political career patterns of German legislators and identifies the factors which are important in the leadership selection process. Further, the dissertation also looks at how two disadvantaged groups in German society, women and East Germans, fare in the selection process. The dissertation finds that generally intra-parliamentary recruitment differs from recruitment to parliament. Additionally, it finds that different factors are positively correlated with leadership selection patterns at different times and across different parliamentary party groups. Lastly, it shows that women fare comparatively better in the selection process to leadership positions than East Germans, though the political career profiles of both groups are in many cases very similar.