Germany
In Germany, there are 299 basic electoral constituencies (called Wahlkreise), accounting for half of the 598 nominal seats in the German Bundestag in a "First Past the Post electoral system". The constituencies for the rest of the seats are the federal states, representatives being drawn from the top of their respective electoral lists. The former constituencies are divided so that each has approximately the same number of voters. German electoral law dictates that the deviation from average of all constituencies shall not exceed a certain figure. Other restrictions prevent abuses such as gerry-mandering.
Similar provisions obtain for many of the federal state parliaments, though constituencies are generally smaller and boundaries change more frequently. Representatives to the European Parliament are only elected by party proportion and state.
Read more about this topic: List Of Electoral Districts By Nation
Famous quotes containing the word germany:
“The tears I have cried over Germany have dried. I have washed my face.”
—Marlene Dietrich (1904–1992)
“We are fighting in the quarrel of civilization against barbarism, of liberty against tyranny. Germany has become a menace to the whole world. She is the most dangerous enemy of liberty now existing.”
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)
“How does Nature deify us with a few and cheap elements! Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of emperors ridiculous. The dawn is my Assyria; the sun-set and moon-rise my Paphos, and unimaginable realms of faerie; broad noon shall be my England of the senses and the understanding; the night shall be my Germany of mystic philosophy and dreams.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)