Cabinet Selection and Removal in the German Länder

Though in parliamentary systems most parliaments have to vote a government into office, and – by definition – all parliaments have the right to remove the cabinet, the exact rules of cabinet selection and removal differ significantly. Sieberer (2010, 2013) explores the theoretical and empirical connection between both sets of formal rules. He argues that in parliamentary systems, the parliamentary powers in the selection process can be partly substituted by parliamentary powers regarding the removal of cabinets. Testing his “substitutability thesis” in 25 European parliamentary democracies he finds first evidence that parliaments have either strong powers in cabinet selection or strong removal powers. In this paper we test Sieberers arguments applying his indices to the 16 German subnational parliaments. The German Länder are a worthwhile testing ground of Sieberers hypotheses as they vary with regard to their selection and removal rules holding other context variables constant.