Composition
The composition of the Bundesrat is different from other similar legislative bodies representing states (such as the Russian Federation Council or the U.S. Senate). Bundesrat members are not elected—either by popular vote or by the state parliaments—but are delegated by the respective state government.
Normally, a state delegation consists of the minister-president (First Mayor in Bremen and Hamburg, Governing Mayor of Berlin) and other cabinet ministers (senators in the city states). The state cabinet may appoint as many delegates as the state has votes (all other ministers/senators are usually appointed as deputy delegates), but may also send just a single delegate to exercise all of the state's votes. In any case, the state has to cast its votes en bloc, i.e., without vote splitting. As state elections are not coordinated across Germany and can occur at any time, the majority distributions in the Bundesrat can change after any such election.
The number of votes a state is allocated is based on a form of degressive proportionality according to its population. This way, smaller states have more votes than a distribution proportional to the population would grant. The allocation of votes is regulated by the German constitution (Grundgesetz). All of a state's votes are cast en bloc—either for or against or in abstention of a proposal. Each state is allocated at least three votes, and a maximum of six. States with more than
- 2 million inhabitants have 4 votes,
- 6 million inhabitants have 5 votes,
- 7 million inhabitants have 6 votes.
This allocation of votes is roughly consistent with the Penrose method based on game theory, which was applied to compute the last column in the table below.
| State | Population (mil.) |
Votes | Inhabitants per vote |
If votes according to Penrose method |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 18.06 | 6 | 3,009,667 | 8.9 |
| Bavaria | 12.47 | 6 | 2,078,167 | 7.4 |
| Baden-Württemberg | 10.74 | 6 | 1,789,333 | 6.8 |
| Lower Saxony | 7.99 | 6 | 1,332,333 | 5.9 |
| Hesse | 6.09 | 5 | 1,218,400 | 5.1 |
| Saxony | 4.27 | 4 | 1,067,500 | 4.3 |
| Rheinland-Pfalz | 4.06 | 4 | 1,014,750 | 4.2 |
| Berlin | 3.40 | 4 | 848,750 | 3.8 |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 2.83 | 4 | 708,250 | 3.5 |
| Brandenburg | 2.56 | 4 | 639,750 | 3.3 |
| Saxony-Anhalt | 2.47 | 4 | 617,500 | 3.3 |
| Thuringia | 2.34 | 4 | 585,000 | 3.2 |
| Hamburg | 1.74 | 3 | 580,000 | 2.7 |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 1.71 | 3 | 570,000 | 2.7 |
| Saarland | 1.05 | 3 | 350,000 | 2.1 |
| Bremen | 0.66 | 3 | 220,000 | 1.7 |
| Total | 82.44 | 69 | 1,194,710 | 69.0 |
Read more about this topic: Bundesrat Of Germany
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