Designing democracy – from top to bottom, from visible to the invisible. Is it needed in current times? How can design contribute? With stylepark, the magazine for architecture and design, I talk about the joint work with Prof. Dr. Friedrich von Borries of Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg. The exhibit is showing at the museum…
After 29 expert interviews and their in-depth analysis, the first article to shine a light into the negotiation process is out soon: Robin Rüsenberg/ Lorenz Schleyer/ Sven T. Siefken (2026): Die Spielregeln von Koalitionsverhandlungen nach Bundestagswahlen: Logiken, Abläufe und Taktiken der Akteure. In: Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen, Jg. 57, H. 3, 477–502. The article is available…
mappp, the atlas for politics, processes and participation was recently released in Berlin and is available online now. I spoke with the public radio station “Bremen 2” about our project and some central findings of it. The interview was broadcast on October 17, you can listen to it here:
Leaves are falling in Berlin, it’s getting stormy and cold. In time for the fall semester, my introductory textbook on the German Bundestag has been published. It provides and up-to-date overview of the German Parliament, how it is elected, what functions it fulfills and how it is organized. And I address current challenges and perspectives….
Last week we launched mappp – the atlas for politics, processes and participation. It is based on the joint work with Gestaltungszentrale Politik. Our release event in Berlin’s Delphi Lux Cinema had free popcorn for all. And a short movie that is online now, too (watch it below). And please check out the mappp!
mappp is online: the Atlas for Politics, Processes and Participation. Our goal is to show how law are really made in Germany. It includes the early phases of policy making and both the formal and informal practices. This joint project with “Gestaltungszentrale Politik” has kept us busy over the past years, assembling information on the…
Mit der „Diagnose Kommissionitis“ beschäftige ich mich seit Jahrzehnten in meiner Forschung. Gerade werden wieder viele Expertenkommissionen eingesetzt. Über ihre Funktionen und Effekte habe ich anlässlich der Pflegestrukturkommission gesprochen mit dem ARD-Hauptstadtstudio. The interview is available here
On October 6 and 7, 2026, the IPSA Research Committee of Legislative Specialists held a conference on the often neglected perspective on Parliaments in the Global South. The conference was held in Mexico City in hybrid format. Sven T. Siefken participated as panel chair and commentator on “Parliaments, Democratic Erosion and Authoritarianism”. The well-developed papers…
Uli Grötsch, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Federal Police Authorities came to the Federal University. After an introduction to the university and a dedicated workshop, Uli Grötsch and Sven T. Siefken held a podium discussion on the role of his recently established office, the experience within it and current reform challenges. all photos: HS Bund
It’s in the box! Recording the trailer for the show next week was great fun – and a welcome opportunity to reflect on our unique interdisciplinary research project with Gestaltungszentrale Politik and many practice partners. The cartography of the legislative process has pinned down the process from idea to law in Germany. Now, we are…
Redesigning Democratic Representation: Our exhibit is now showing @Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt. Food for thought about representation big and small. Ballot boxes, MP district work, the federal eagle and the Cross of Merit. Come think! Thanks to all contributors. More here
The office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Federal Police Authorities has been set up in early 2024. On September 23, the first Commissioner, Uli Grötsch, will join us at the Federal University to share his experience in office and discuss the effects it has had. The event is open to the public. Details can…
Renowned expert professor Masaki Kondo joined the Federal Unviersity of Administrative Sciences for a guest lecture during the brown bag seminar series. He spoke on the new party Sanseito, founded in 2020. Sven T. Siefken moderated the event. More on the lecture can be found in the announcement below.
Back from last week’s 17th Wroxton Workshop of parliamentary scholars and parliamentarians: what a wonderful opportunity for exchange between academics and practitioners, led by Professor Philip Norton, The Lord of Louth. Meeting old friends and making new ones, discussing our work on the legislative process in Germany (jointly developed with Gestaltungszentrale Politik). More about the…
After the head of the CDU/CSU parliamentary party group has resigned, Thorsten Frei was nominated as successor for that leadership post. In an interview with public radio station hr1, Sven T. Siefken discussed the challenges of the job and the profile of the candidate. Listen to the interview here
During this week’s conference “Behavioral Insights – Impact on Modernizing Government” our working group of practitioners and students discussed how visual approaches can help understand, analyze and communicate inside public administration, to political decision makers and towards the broader public. Visual approaches provide plenty of untapped opportunities … but dangers of oversimplification and even manipulation…
A fixed deadline for government formation – no good idea! Our article at Verfassungsblog compares the constitutional rules in the three states with upcoming elections this summer: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Sachsen-Anhalt and Berlin. And discusses their potential consequences. Written with Lorenz Müller and Philipp Cartier of Gestaltungszentrale Politik. Read the text and watch the graphs here: https://verfassungsblog.de/ministerpraesidentenwahl-fristen/…
How does the German political system deal with the consequences of the Iran war? We discussed this topic with a group of students at the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences during meetings and visits to the German Bundestag, the Federal Chancellery, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the Federal Ministry of the Economy, the Federal…
Quite a few expert commissions of the Federal government of Germany have submitted their recommendations in recent weeks. On public radio station Inforadio, Sven T. Siefken discussed their composition, the potential consequences and legitimacy of commissions. More here: https://www.inforadio.de/rubriken/interviews/2026/06/27/rente-kommission-social-media-experten-rat-regierung.html and the audio version below
At the day of the open door of the Federal Government, the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences was presenting the BA and MA programs. Details here: https://www.bmas.de/DE/Ministerium/Veranstaltungen/tag-der-offenen-tuer-2026.html and more about the University: https://hsbund.de
The German Section of the International Commission of Jurists held its annual conference at the Bundestag on the topic of protecting free speech in parliament. As a panelist on the concluding podium Sven T. Siefken commented on the developments in parliamentary discourse in recent years, and discussed with Harald Dossi (Director of the Parliament of…
The legislative process is only partly understood. It is characterized by various iterations among different groups and constitutional organs. Informal steps of coordination prepare and support the formal ones. Some of it is clearly visible and public, other parts are not. In this podcast with the Brandenburg agency for political education, I talk about our…
Our ongoing interdisciplinary research project is headed to reaching a next milestone – artists and designers will exhibit contributions on redesigning democratic representation at the Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt. Find out more about this project here https://www.ddc.de/de/magazin/redesigning-democratic-representation.php
The 2026 course on “Getting Things Done in Politics”, taught by Sven T. Siefken and Armand Zorn at the Hertie School, concluded with a visit to and discussions at the German Bundestag. Grappling with current challenges as well as long-running demands on policy-making, the class investigated the complexities of the German political system and how…
Early April, I joined the Ministry of Digitalization and State Modernization for a practice and research stay. It is always instructive to observe from the inside how changes are implemented and coordinated, and what challenges persist. Curious to learn, happy to contribute! More about the ministry here https://bmds.bund.de
Expectations were high in 2025 that government formation would be different than in the past. Yet a detailed analysis of the coalition negotiations in 2025 shows that they were conducted mostly like before: they were not much faster, the coalition contract was not much shorter, and the rules on coalition cooperation were even more detailed….
Our graduate class on “Getting Things Done in Politics” at the Hertie School in Berlin visited the Federal Chancellery. After a discussion with staff of the unit “citizen centred policy-making”, students took a tour of the building and visited the cabinet room – our goal: To understand how the center of the German government operates.
The Research Committee of Legislative Specialists holds the next Online Seminar on March 18. Maya Kornberg will present central findings of her new book “Stuck. How Money, Media and Violence Prevent Change in Congress”. Anne Marie Cammisa of Georgetown University will provide comments. Please register for the event here.
Voting rights for Danes living outside Denmark are restricted. They can only take part under certain conditions. In Germany, we take it for granted today that citizens abroad can participate in the Bundestag elections. Yet the current universal right her only exists since a decision by the Constitutional Court in 2012! In a recent interview…
How are laws really made? This morning, I talked with Deutschlandfunk Kultur, the German national public radio, about the current project Gestaltungszentrale Politik and I have been working on. The recording is available here https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/demokratie-auf-tapetenrolle-wie-gesetze-wirklich-entstehen-100.html
Interview with Süddeutsche Zeitung: the long and winding road of the legislative process in Germany. We mapped the complex stages of negotiation, preparation and coordination that turn an idea into law. And who influences them. Currently on 5 meters of paper, soon in digital form. A joint project with Gestaltungszentrale Politik, subscribe to our newsletter…
Peter Altmaier is the former Federal Minister of the Economy and former Head of the Federal Chancellery and has held many other posts in ministries and in parliament. During a public discussion, Altmaier gave a detailed presentation about the toolbox of practical politics and discussed a number of questions based on his long experience, among…
What is the planning of Germany if NATO‘s mutual defense clause is invoked? This was the guiding question for a group of students during their project week excursion to Berlin. Accompanied by Sven T. Siefken, they met policy makers and practitioners at the Federal Chancellery, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, the…
Parliamentary breakfast in the Bundestag on January 29: Introducing the World Design Capital Frankfurt and our project Redesigning Democratic Representation (ReDeRe) as partner of it. Excited about so many interesting initiatives bringing design competencies to resonate with politics. More about WDC here https://wdc2026.org/ and about ReDeRe here https://redesign-democracy.hfbk.net/ University of fine Arts Hamburg Federal University…
Parliamentary Party Groups (PPGs) are the engines of parliamentary democracy. In a new article, I describe five steps to reach an enlightened understanding of their role in the political process. Find it here: Sven T. Siefken, Fraktionen im politischen Prozess. Fünf Schritte zum Verständnis des Motors der parlamentarischen Demokratie in Deutschland. In: Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen,…
A glimpse behind the curtains of power politics: Peter Altmaier, the former Federal Minister of the Economy and former Head of the Chancellery will join Sven T. Siefken at the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences to discuss his experience in government leadership. The event is open to the public, more details are available in…
The cover of my book on expert commissions in the political process has faded after 18 years … not the analysis. More on the advisory commissions in 2025 and what to expect from them, I discussed with Rheinische Post newspaper (here): pension reform, the debt break, child and youth protection in a digital world, de-risking…
Headlines can be misleading: In this interview with “Die Welt” newspaper, I argue that the expert commission on pension reform has a good chance for success. It will not be a “Heureka” moment, finding a new solution to make everyone happy. But it can negotiate and balance a compromise that works. Success will depend on…
It was a memorable day in the Berlin politics, because following long political discussions, two central bills were passed by the coalition: changes to the pension system and the military draft. Students of Colorado College visited the German Bundestag. After an academic introduction to parliamentary government in Germany by Sven T. Siefken, the group had…
December 1 to 4, the VolkswagenStiftung assembled for a fruitful exchange its current projects that gather Transformational Knowledge on Democracies under Change. The ongoing project Redesigning Democratic Representation (Re-De-Re) is jointly led by Friedrich von Borries and Sven T. Siefken. It develops ideas, implements and tests them to improve representation. More here https://redesign-democracy.hfbk.net/ Photos: Christian Burkert…
Coming up in January 2026: The Practice of Legislation, an event organized by Hermann Hill at the German University of Administrative Sciences in Speyer. Sven T. Siefken will present research conducted on the early stages of the legislative process, both in a formal and informal perspective. You can sign up for the event here: https://weiterbildung.uni-speyer.de/suche/veranstaltungsdetails.html?courseId=588-C-4382895
The research project “Redesigning Democratic Representation” assembles a group of designers, academics practitioners at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg on November 3, 2025. The goal is to reimagine voting – both from a procedural and from a performative perspective. It builds on the award winners of the international design competition for the ballot…
It was a bumpy path to the new government in Germany after the collapse of the previous one. Established routines helped to get it done: After the Bundestag election in early 2025, it took 72 days untill the new Chancellor was in office. Over 270 politicians from all levels of Federal, state and local politics…
Exciting district dialogue in Frankfurt: 23 inhabitants of the city, drawn by lot, discussed their experience and wishes for successful democratic representation. MP Armand Zorn joined to hear and share his perspectives. This is part of the ongoing research project „Redesigning Democratic Representation“, run jointly with Friedrich von Borries and Demokratie Innovation. More here: https://redesign-democracy.hfbk.net/
How can scientific evidence be better used for policy-making? When to bring in knowledge, whom to talk to, how to build networks to practitioners in government and parliament … and what role the media play in all this. It was a fruitful discussion in the Behavioral Insights Connect network, where Sven T. Siefken led a…
Building on the cartography of legislation which has been developed in many workshops, observations and interviews over the past years, the interdisciplinary team of Gestaltungszentrale Politik and professor Sven T. Siefken will develop a digital atlas for political processes. It will show way of political engagement to the public, making them more accessible. More on…
The new German government has planned a record number of expert commissions. Sven T. Siefken has been doing research on their various uses for many years and talked about his findings to the Spiegel magazine. There are symbolic uses, they may help settle negotiations by postponing though decisions, but they can also bring about fundamental…
Many approaches are currently debated on how the legislative process can be debated, among them are classic optimization, different forms of public engagement, digitalization, the use of articial engagement, increased transparency and the use of new policy tools. In an article published in the journal “Legislation and Policy Studies”, Sven T. Siefken argues that for…
The Research Committee of Legislative Specialists met with the Speaker of the National Assembly of Korea, Woo Won-shik, to discuss current affairs and the role of parliament in the recent coup attempt in the country.
The National Assembly Research Service of the Republic of Korea held a Workshop on modernizing legislation with a special focus on public engagement. It brought together practitioners and academics from the disciplines of law and political science. Sven T. Siefken gave the opening presentation and recommended to take a broader approach than is often applied:…