Estimating the Representativeness of German Parties in the 2013 Bundestag Election

The positions of German parties on 36 policy issues are compared with the results of public opinion polls, and the parties’ indices of popularity (the average percentage of the population represented) and universality (frequency in representing a majority) are constructed. The 2013 federal election winner, the CDU/CSU, is shown to be the least representative among the 28 paries considered. The most representative among the four parties in the Bundestag (with >5% of the votes) is DIE LINKE, which received only 8.6% of the votes. It is concluded that voters are inconsistent with their own political profiles, disregard party manifestos, and are likely driven by political traditions, even if outdated, or by personal images of politicians.