Departmental principle

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The departmental principle is a German government policy, the after Art. 65 2 Set Basic Law states that the Minister its division within the by the Federal predetermined policy guidelines derived independently and on their own responsibility.

The departmental principle is standardized in Art. 65 sentence 2 GG: "Within these guidelines (note: the Federal Chancellor), each Federal Minister manages his area of ​​responsibility independently and under his own responsibility."

Conceptual distinction

Conceptually, a distinction must be made between the constitutional and the administrative side or the gubernative and the administrative leg of the departmental principle. The gubernative side concerns the interaction with the Federal Chancellor and collegial principle in the triad of principles of the government organization; the administrative side includes the elements hierarchy and monocracy within and between authorities.

history

In terms of content, an approach to the departmental principle from history is appropriate. In the whole of history, the organization was influenced (objectively) by the scope of the tasks of the state and (subjectively) by the attitudes and ideas of leading personalities. The starting point was a collegial business dealings.

The departmental impacts changed from exception to rule only in the course of the Stein-Hardenberg reforms , with Karl August von Hardenberg alone being the driving force here . The comparison of Prussian constitutionalism and the all-German empire shows the factual development of the organizational triad of the Weimar Constitution and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, despite opposing starting positions .
Based on this finding, we can speak of a natural and optimal form of organization.

Constitutional and administrative law

In the current constitutional and administrative law, the existence of a minister or ministry begins with the formation of a government by the Federal Chancellor. Due to his substantive right to form cabinets, he creates several factual departments and proposes ministers to the Federal President. In the absence of a legal reservation, parliament can only influence the formation of a government through the right of access.

Independent management

Elements of the independent management of a business area by the minister are organizational, personnel and material authority.

Instead of a ranking, the principles of the government organization should rather be set up in an order such that the departmental principle in the sense of a drawer function initially takes on the capture and pre-sorting of the areas of life, while the chancellor and collegial principle as a barrier ensure uniformity.

responsibility

The existence of responsibility in the modern state is not based on parliamentary responsibility, but on the transfer of the military structure of command and obedience to the administration of the state by Napoleon. In Prussia, Hardenberg made use of the (winning) model. The parliament, which was only created several decades later, benefited from this organization alongside and then in place of the monarch. Parliamentary responsibility is therefore the justification, but not the origin of the administrative department principle. Parties of responsibility are the minister as debtor as well as u. a. Parliament as a believer in responsibility. In fact, there is both a behavioral and a state liability of the minister, which regularly lead to a minister being held responsible for deficits or successes in his department regardless of fault or earnings. The background to this is, in turn, that political events cannot be conveyed independently by the media, so that the political responsibility for deficits and successes in the areas that are subordinate to a minister are attributed to the minister, even if administrative employees were responsible for their specific actions was not known at all to the holder of the ministerial post. On the legal side, a distinction must be made between the minister's accountability and liability obligations. The specific obligation is to be determined depending on the facts of the case for the respective individual case. In principle, a minister must provide information to parliament and at least to the general public upon request; this right can be found in practically all parliamentary democracies. In Germany, the so-called right of quotation and interpellation is constitutionally indicated only in Article 43.1 of the Basic Law (" The Bundestag and its committees can require the presence of any member of the Federal Government "). In the rules of procedure of the German Bundestag, which provides for numerous written and oral questioning instruments, and in practice and the case law of the Federal Constitutional Court, a comprehensive and, except for a very minimal "core area of ​​executive responsibility", extensive right of the Bundestag to information and control over the Federal Government is adopted. The rights of the minorities within the Bundestag also take into account the role of the opposition, namely to control the government and thus also individual departments and their ministers.

hierarchy

In connection with the hierarchy , the image of a closed pyramid is often drawn as a symbol of the unity of the state. With today's scope of state tasks, however, an efficient state is also dependent on differentiation options: The departmental principle as a combination principle offers itself as a mediator between the extremes. Breaks in the hierarchy are considered permissible if certain conditions are met; H. in particular if the influence is not completely capped, but at least remains thinned or kinked. The metaphorical successor to the pyramid is not the network, but the satellite system.

Monocracy

The sense of the collegial principle is u. a. the thorough handling of things. In contrast, the monocracy is more effective; H. faster, and ensures clear accountability. It has constitutional power only with regard to the minister; under certain conditions or for certain functions, collegial forms are also permitted.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. cf. also z. B. Art. 55 LV NRW, Art. 37 Para. 1 Clause 2 LV Nds, Art. 89 LV Bbg