Parliaments in Disguise? How German Councillors perceive Local Councils

Drawing on a survey among German local councillors, the article is discussing the question if German local councils do constitute ‘parliamentary’ bodies. To which extent do local councillors perceive the council as a parliament and themselves as members of a parliament? This question is especially interesting in Germany, where the public largely associates terms like ‘parliament’ with the local council and ‘government’ with the mayor and the executive officers, even if local institutions by law all belong to the executive branch. Despite the institutional setup, I claim that councillors perceive themselves as ‘local MPs’. By using the concept of parliamentarism, this article analyses the self-assessments of nearly 900 German local councillors. The article shows that German local councillors act in a quasi-parliamentarian style by controlling the executive, but take important decisions within the frame of ‘local laws’ and seek to implement their party’s programme. Councillors, representing their respective party in the council, also negotiate coalitions and divide themselves into ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ benches, resembling the setup of a ‘real’ parliament.