Germany

Question 1

(Germany’s central bank)

Answer 1

Bundesbank

Question 2

He became chancellor, and the SPD formed a coalition government with the
environmentalist Green Party that lasted 7 years (1998–2005).

Answer 2

Gerhard Schröder

Question 3

who then won reelection in 2009 with her preferred coalition partners, the Free Democrats (FDP).

Answer 3

Angela Merkel

Question 4

Spending cuts, layoffs,
and wage decreases
meant to address budget
problems.

Answer 4

austerity policies

Question 5

a term often used to describe the Federal Republic’s unusual economy,
focused heavily on industrial exports.

Answer 5

Modell Deutschland (the German model),

Question 6

Laws that set broad
parameters for economic
behavior but that requires
subsequent elaboration,
often through formal
agreements between
employers and employees.

Answer 6

framework
regulations

Question 7

this system regulates
not the details, but the general rules of the game under which all actors must play.
This pattern, known as ________________, has enabled German economic
policy to avoid the abrupt lurches between laissez-faire and state-led economic policy
that have characterized post–World War II Britain.

Answer 7

framework regulations

Question 8

A system that aims to
combine the efficiency of
market economies with a
concern for fairness for a
broad range of citizens

Answer 8

social market
economy

Question 9

A semipublic institution
that administers
insurance contributions
from employees and
employers and thus
pays for health care for
covered participants.

Answer 9

health insurance fund

Question 10

A bargaining system in
which important policies
are established and often
carried out with the
participation of trade
unions and business
associations.

Answer 10

democratic
corporatism

Question 11

The right of craftsmen
to control who can learn,
enter, and practice their
craft.

Answer 11

guild system

Question 12

The social market economy is part of the broader system of ______________, in which national (and state) governments delegate certain policymaking authority to private and semipublic institutions.

Answer 12

democratic corporatism

Question 13

The legal right of
employees to elect
representatives to help
determine the direction
of the company in which
they work.

Answer 13

codetermination

Question 14

A group of firm
employees elected by
coworkers to represent
the workforce in
negotiations with
management at that
specific shop or company

Answer 14

Works council

Question 15

allows representatives of workers and trade unions to obtain voting
seats on the supervisory boards of directors of firms with 2,000 or more employees.

Answer 15

Codetermination

Question 16

Until recently, Germany’s only large ethnic minority originated in the _____________
program of the 1960s.

Answer 16

Gastarbeiter

Question 17

British political scientists ________& ________ refers to Germany as a “reluctant hegemon.”

Answer 17

William Paterson and Simon
Bulmer

Question 18

A policy to shift German
energy consumption from
fossil fuels and nuclear to
sustainable sources such
as wind, solar, hydro, and
biomass.

Answer 18

Energiewende

Question 19

The nineteen EU
members who share
a common currency,
the euro. Of the nine
remaining EU members,
all but Denmark (optout) and the UK (leaving
EU) are obliged to join
the Eurozone.

Answer 19

Eurozone

Question 20

The 1949 protoconstitution of the Federal Republic, which
continues to function
today

Answer 20

Basic Law

Question 21

The ___________ is a professional (all-volunteer) army in a country deeply skeptical of the use of force.

Answer 21

Bundeswehr

Question 22

The 2016 “Best Countries” ranking, by ____________, placed Germany #1 overall.

Answer 22

US News and World Report

Question 23

The ________ is elected by the
Federal Convention (an electoral college of all Bundestag members and an equal
number of delegates elected by the state legislatures).

Answer 23

president

Question 24

who previously served as foreign minister and is widely respected by Social Democrats and Conservatives.

Answer 24

Frank-Walter Steinmeier

Question 25

The Basic Law requires that the chancellor be elected by an _____________ of the Bundestag.

Answer 25

absolute majority

Question 26

A government made up of the two largest parties, often in response to outsider parties deemed unfit for governing

Answer 26

grand coalition

Question 27

She was 51 years old in 2005 when she became the first female chancellor. A minister’s daughter, a physicist, a latecomer to political life, an eastern German, a Protestant in a party dominated by Catholics, and a woman who does not champion feminist positions

Answer 27

Angela Merkel

Question 28

Her ability to avoid major political conflict and rebound strongly from temporary setbacks earned her the nickname “______” by U.S. intelligence agents.

Answer 28

Teflon

Question 29

This measure requires the Bundestag to elect a new chancellor by an absolute majority in order to oust the current one.

Answer 29

constructive vote of no confidence

Question 30

are also collectively responsible for cabinet policy: they are expected to support the government’s position and not publicly express disagreements or reservations about policy.

Answer 30

Ministers

Question 31

Employees of federal, state, and municipal governments.

Answer 31

civil servants

Question 32

Reviews appeals of lower court decisions, including criminal and civil cases, disputes among the states, and matters viewed as political in some countries, such as the abortion ruling.

Answer 32

The Federal High Court

Question 33

The ____________ deals with matters directly affecting the Basic Law.

Answer 33

Special Constitutional Court

Question 34

The _____________ system is the third branch of the judiciary. It can check the bureaucracy’s power, an important function since policy is often determined by the bureaucracy.

Answer 34

Administrative Court

Question 35

An electoral system in which about half of deputies are elected from direct constituencies and the other half are drawn from closed party lists. The Bundestag’s form of mixed member system is basically a variant of PR.

Answer 35

mixed member system

Question 36

The lower house usually consists of around 600 seats. German elections are by a two-ballot system, known as the __________

Answer 36

mixed member system

Question 37

A party must get at least 5 percent of the “second votes” for its candidates to get seats in the Bundestag (or the state parliaments). This rule depresses votes for “splinter” parties unlikely to meet this threshold.

Answer 37

5 percent clause

Question 38

The constitutional guarantee that political parties have a privileged place in German politics, including generous subsidies for building party organizations.

Answer 38

party democracy

Question 39

The _________ can exercise an absolute veto on amendments to the constitution as well as all laws that affect the fundamental interests of the states, such as taxes, territorial integrity, and basic administrative functions.

Answer 39

Bundesrat

Question 40

The _______ (two distinct, but closely allied parties) have dominated postwar German politics, governing, usually in coalitions, from 1949 to 1969, 1982 to 1998, and continually since 2005.

Answer 40

CDU/CSU

Question 41

_______________ champions the social market economy. Their social policies in the decades after World War II were paternalistic, but they sponsored the considerable expansion of the German welfare state.

Answer 41

Christian Democracy

Question 42

The traditional leading party of the left, the SPD, was founded in 1875 in response to rapid industrialization and Bismarck’s authoritarianism.

Answer 42

The Social Democratic Party

Question 43

The _____ was the only party in the Weimar parliament to vote against Hitler’s rise to power, and the party still takes great pride in its historical opposition to the Nazi dictatorship.

Answer 43

SPD

Question 44

The policy developed by the SPD’s Willy Brandt to promote contact and commerce with the Soviet Union and its communist allies during the Cold War.

Answer 44

Ostpolitik

Question 45

Nonparty and often single-issue initiative groups, who focus on concrete problems such as the environment, traffic, housing, or other social and economic issues.

Answer 45

citizen action groups

Question 46

This heterogeneous party drew support from several constituencies in the early 1980s: urban-based citizen action groups, environmental activists, farmers, antinuclear activists, the peace movement, and supporters of Marxism-Leninism.

Answer 46

The Greens

Question 47

contained two ideologies: economic liberalism (in the European sense of free market-oriented) and social liberalism (personal freedoms). Recently, the FDP has become more explicitly free-market, emphasizing deregulation and privatization.

Answer 47

Free Democratic Party

Question 48

was formed when the former East German Communist Party (PDS) merged with a breakaway faction of the SPD that had been alienated by the Agenda 2010 reforms to liberalize the labor market and the welfare state.

Answer 48

The Left Party

Question 49

The _________ is the only German party to consistently oppose the German-supported austerity policies in struggling Eurozone states

Answer 49

Left Party

Question 50

The _____________ stipulated that citizenship was based on blood (jus sanguinis) and not naturalization (jus solis).

Answer 50

1913 Immigration Law

Question 51

In Germany, the potential dump at a salt dome called _______has now been superseded by a search for a site that will be good for “a million years.”

Answer 51

Gorleben

Question 52

(herself a physician and mother of seven) instituted policies making it easier for both mothers and fathers to take time off for the birth of a child (roughly, six weeks before and six weeks after birth at full pay, split between the two parents).

Answer 52

Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen