Alexander Kühne: Chaos surrounding the Speakers of the 118th U.S. House of Representatives: Paralyzed Republicans facing the “executive takeover”?
The Speaker of the House of Representatives plays a key role in the U.S. political system; their decisions and leadership styles have far-reaching impacts on national politics. However, conflicts within the Republican Party have damaged this office in recent years. In the 118th Congress (2023–2025), for example, Republican Kevin McCarthy became the first speaker to be voted out of office (“motion to vacate”)—overthrown by a small group of MPs from his own party. The reason for this was a cross-party compromise on a temporary budget with the Democrats to avert a government shutdown. Republicans led by Matt Gaetz rejected any concessions, demanded tough austerity measures and an end to aid to Ukraine in its current form. Significant differences within the Republicans also made the election of McCarthy’s successor, Mike Johnson, more difficult. The turmoil not only highlights the dependence on Donald Trump, but also the increasing polarization within the Republican conference and the difficulty of finding viable cross-party and intra-party compromises. Moreover, it reflects the weakness of the party establishment and its fear of its own disempowerment—opposing Trump means financial losses in campaign support and the possible loss of top offices. [ZParl, vol. 56 (2025), no. 2, pp. 269–292]
Michael Kolkmann: Narrow Republican victory on Capitol Hill: The elections to the U.S. Congress on November 5, 2024.
The 2024 U.S. elections did not only produce with Donald Trump a new (and also old) president, at the same time the entire House of Representatives as well as a third of the Senate were re-elected. The Republicans managed to keep their thin majority in the House, while they took over the Senate majority from the Democrats, with the effect for the coming two years that the U.S. political system will be dominated by a “unified government” of Republicans holding the White House and both Congressional chambers. This article describes the political situation on the eve of election day, explains the most important issues facing the voters and presents the election results in greater detail. In addition, the relationship between the executive and the legislative powers is framed within the system of checks and balances to help explain what to expect in the time period until the next elections in November 2026. In the end, long-term political trends with regard to membership of the U.S. Congress and its functioning will be taken into account as well. [ZParl, vol. 56 (2025), no. 2, pp. 293–311]
Christian Lammert: The U.S. presidential election on November 5, 2024: The triumph of populism in a polarized nation.
The 2024 U.S. presidential election marked a historic turning point: Donald Trump became the first president since Grover Cleveland to return to the White House after an electoral defeat. Winning 312 to 226 electoral votes and 49.8 percent of the popular vote, he prevailed over Kamala Harris, who entered the race after Joe Biden’s withdrawal. The election was shaped by extreme societal polarization, economic uncertainty, and identity politics. Trump’s campaign focused on authoritarian rhetoric, economic populism, and strict immigration policies, while Harris emphasized social justice and democratic values. Key to Trump’s victory were gains among working-class and Latino voters, as well as perceptions of economic competence. The election deepened social divisions and ushered in a phase of profound political and institutional change in the USA. [ZParl, vol. 56 (2025), no. 2, pp. 312–331]
Daniel Benedikt Stienen: “Project 18”. The voting age debate in the USA and West Germany in transnational comparison (1965–1972).
Around 1970, the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 in numerous countries in the western world. However, previous studies dedicated to the voting age were limited to a national framework of analysis and neglected international developments. Using the example of the USA and West Germany, this article compares the political debate and the legislative process. It comes to the conclusion that (1) the arguments and counter-arguments in the discussion were similar, (2) voting age reductions at the regional level spilled over to the federal level, but, moreover, (3) the cross-party consensus in both countries was a key factor in the implementation of the reform. In contrast, no positive influence can be attributed to international developments. However, further comparative studies are necessary in order to fully grasp the global phenomenon of lowering the voting age around 1970. [ZParl, vol. 56 (2025), no. 2, pp. 332–349]
Philipp Adorf: The Republican Party under Donald Trump’s spell: between continuity and a turning point?
With Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, his brand of nationalist populism has firmly established itself as the ideological and organizational guiding force of the Republican Party. Internal critics have been sidelined, Congress is loyal, and with JD Vance, a successor shaped by ethno-nationalist ideas is already in place. The party now presents itself as more unified and radicalized, yet at the same time more open to new segments of the electorate. Trump achieved surprising gains among Latino voters and Black men without a college degree, enabled by a blend of economic nationalism, anti-immigration rhetoric, and cultural conservatism. Simultaneously, the Republican agenda was strategically prepared through Project 2025. This blueprint for reshaping the state and weakening liberal institutions has already been implemented extensively during Trump’s first months back in office. Trumpism has thus become the defining structure of the party. [ZParl, vol. 56 (2025), no. 2, pp. 350–372]
Marco Bitschnau: The Great Transformer: Donald Trump and the demographic diversification of the Republican Party.
Donald Trump not only won a convincing victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, but also managed to attract a large number of voters outside the Republican core electorate. The article discusses this development with a special focus on Latinos and notes that Trump’s harsh position on immigration is unlikely to have been to his disadvantage with this group. Meanwhile, at the macro level, his success is embedded in a larger cultural transformation of the Republican Party, which is developing ever clearer traits of secularism, personalism, and blue-collar politics—even if all these elements rest on shaky ideological foundations and have little genuine novelty value. The future prospects of this shift, which is not free of ruptures and contradictions, hinge on the key question whether Trump’s recent achievement is primarily linked to his persona or whether he is merely a catalyst for changing preference structures and electability considerations. [ZParl, vol. 56 (2025), no. 2, pp. 373–386]
Eric Langenbacher: German-U.S. relations in the second Trump presidency.
The second Trump Administration is proving tumultuous for the German-American relationship. Ever-changing U.S. policies on trade, tariffs, taxes, defense, as well as on conflicts like Russia-Ukraine have already weakened the Transatlantic relationship after the years of rejuvenation during Joe Biden’s tenure. It will be challenging to minimize the fallout from four years of chaos, but there are early signals that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is developing good relations with President Donald Trump. Even though the German side has put in place seasoned diplomats and policy-makers, there are disruptive figures around Trump, such as Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who might influence U.S. policy. The increase in German defense spending and the dense network of governmental, civil societal, and corporate ties across the Atlantic should be mitigating factors, but the only constant will be Trump’s unpredictability. [ZParl, vol. 56 (2025), no. 2, pp. 387–404]
Jeong-In Yun: Challenges and responses of the South Korean Parliament to the presidential coup.
Amid a constitutional crisis caused by the sitting President’s self-coup attempt—abuse of martial law power and mobilization of military troops—in December 2024, the Korean parliament, the National Assembly, played a key role in swiftly contending with the immediate threat to constitutional order, but also in addressing the incidents following the legal procedures within the institutional framework of its constitutional powers and functions. In this process, the Korean National Assembly’s efforts were challenged by interactions inside and outside the parliament. Despite persistent obstructions by the ruling party within and the existing government outside the parliament, the opposition-led Assembly facilitated necessary actions, including the resolution for lifting martial law, the suspension and impeachment of the President, parliamentary investigations and hearings, and the legislation for the special prosecutor’s investigation. This highlights that in a presidential democracy, even the most devastating crisis triggered by the President can be overcome through the constitutional process if a parliament is strongly committed to democratic principles and constitutional mandate. [ZParl, vol. 56 (2025), no. 2, pp. 405–417]
Heinrich Oberreuter: Plebiscitary disempowerment of the plebiscitary. Elections and voting under the Nazi Regime.
Together with the banning of political parties and the destruction of parliamentarism, National Socialism transformed the referendum, ostensibly to strengthen the people, into an instrument of approval democracy without the opportunity for discussion, initiative or decision-making: a symbolic act of staged legitimization of the policies of the providential leader and proof of the identity between him and the racially founded national community. Elections without alternatives had the same function: plebiscitary self-affirmation and self-staging, well-controlled “holidays of the people’s community”, proof of “unity before the world”, especially as proof of legitimacy for breaking international treaties. Manipulated procedures such as the persecution of “traitors of the people” served this purpose. Unlike after the completion of totalitarianism, the unity sacralizing the leader was still vulnerable during the phase of its stabilization. The pseudo-plebiscitary political instruments intended to serve it lost their appeal, and with the completion of totalitarianism their necessity, but not their (rarely implemented) usefulness for the propagandistic mobilization of emotional themes. At the macro level, voting behavior was largely conformist, while sociological differentiation was evident between the “Gauen” and at the local level. However, “seduction and violence” (Ulrich Thamer) ensured broad support for the regime. [ZParl, vol. 56 (2025), no. 2, pp. 449–460]
