Given that in the German legal tradition policy-making is primarily based on the adoption of ‘standing rules’, the formal centre of law- (and policy-)making in Germany is the Bundestag, the national parliament. Like all directly elected assemblies in modern democracies, the Bundestag has been equipped with far-reaching legislative powers as well as with control competences. When executing these traditional parliamentary rights, it can resort to research services that are part of the organisational structures of the Bundestag, supporting individual members as well as associations of parliamentarians such as committees or party groups. This chapter focuses on these in-house support units by referring to general debates on the role of parliament within processes of policy-making in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).

The chapter proceeds as follows. First, the theoretical and conceptual context for an understanding of the role and, as could be argued, the necessity of parliamentary in-house research services is laid out. The criticised discrepancy between the formal and factual role of the Bundestag in the law-making process serves as a starting point for the argument, taking into account its relation with and ‘domination’ by the federal government in particular. Facing an alleged imbalance within this relationship and a decline of parliament in law-making, the normative functions of parliamentary research services crystallise. The empirical part of the chapter sketches the operating principles, staff capacities and the part played by different branches of research services within the German parliament. The historical development of the in-house research capacities are outlined, looking in particular at the functions of the services for the parliamentary majority on the one hand, and the opposition on the other. Referring again to the debate on the ‘deparliamentarisation’ of politics, the conclusions discuss whether and how the in-house research services can contribute to the empowerment of the German parliament when it participates actively in legislation or when it controls legislation initiated by the executive branch.

German Bundestag: ‘parliament’ and/or ‘legislature’?

Taken from a constitutional perspective, the Bundestag as the only directly elected organ at the federal level constitutes the central place of policy-making in the FRG. Article 77, Section 1 of the German Constitution (Grundgesetz, GG) stipulates that federal laws must be approved by the German parliament: ‘Federal laws shall be adopted by the Bundestag.’