German Subnational Party Unity in Multi-Level Context - Federalism and Party Unity in the German Lander

This article examines a possible influence of federalism on the degree of party unity in the German Lander. The cause for such an influence is the government coalition pattern across the two governmental levels. Three different mechanisms of implementation are discussed. Overall we expect that increasing congruence of the coalition constellations between the two governmental levels enhances the degree of party unity in the Lander. An empirical test confirms this assumption for those votes in the Lander parliaments, which show dissenting voting behavior.