Study Commissions in German Parliaments: Practices and Understandings in a Federal Setting

So-called study commissions (Enquete-Kommissionen) constitute one way of engaging with knowledge in German parliaments, namely the Bundestag and the 16 Landtage. They comprise, mostly in equal numbers, members of parliaments and external experts who are suggested by parliamentary party groups. In contrast to other parliamentary tools which are characterised by a juxtaposition of outside knowledge of experts and inside knowledge of MPs, study commissions are characterised by both an equal footing and the shared work on a specified topic. What could be expected from such commissions is that they engage in knowledge production. However, although the general understanding of the commissions for what they are aimed for and what can be expected from them is grosso modo similar, we find rather different practices in German parliaments on the Land and the federal level. To capture understandings, regulations for the commissions in standing orders of these parliaments and the parliamentary debates before introducing those commissions as tools, which happened mainly in the 1980s and early 1990s, are analysed. To grasp practices, remits and purposes of all established study commissions in Land parliaments and the Bundestag (1990 to 2025) are investigated, as well as characteristics of its members and the final reports of selected cases. Since those study commissions constitute one venue for creating public policy priorities and/or plans, it is purposeful to investigate what topics they are installed for and what kind of experts gain entrance in those fora. Furthermore, this study sheds light on how federal levels interact with each other, vertically between the federal and the Land level but also horizontally between the Länder – focussing, albeit, on parliaments, not on governments. It can thus help to clarify the concept of functional imprinting, i.e. how a specific parliamentary tool from the federal level is also used in state parliaments but possibly with different practices despite a shared understanding.