Since mediated politics show a high degree of personalization, elite-orientation, and conflict, it is not surprising that even TV-fiction increasingly builds on politics as a subject of the plots. Our paper starts from the assumption that the fictionalization of politics reflects and distorts reality. The reflection of political reality becomes particularly clear when comparing fictional formats from countries with different political systems. The distortion is due to the specific routines of entertainment production. The resulting picture of politics is therefore likely to emphasize those aspects that are considered necessary for reaching a large audience. This paper aims to reconstruct the fictional presentation of political actors, issues, and democratic decision making in Germany and the US. We concentrate on the TV-drama “Westwing” and its German adaption “Kanzleramt”. These series show the inner life of the presidential resp. chancellor´s office including institutional politics and the conflict-ridden professional and private relationships of the protagonists. We conducted a quantitative content analysis of the season of 2005 when both “Westwing” and “Kanzleramt” were on air. The following research questions are addressed: Which aspects of politics are highlighted? Is it the political struggle and competition or the decision making processes regarding certain policies? Is democracy, is participation supported or contested? Are political actors characterized as corrupt and self-interested or as upright and interested in the common good? These research questions gain particular relevance as it can be assumed that the TV-reality affects the audience´s picture of politics. The paper discusses whether the depiction of politics is likely to rather generate political cynicism and apathy or to encourage participation and to mobilize citizens into politics. We expect to find considerable differences between the fictional images of politics in Germany and the US. Nevertheless, we also expect similarities. This might point to transnational routines of fictionalization.
