ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) role in Parliament and the next chapter its role in the executive branch. In Parliament the SPD has been involved in lawmaking since the founding of the Federal Republic, not to mention its participation earlier in German history. The chapter describes the parliamentary group in the Bundestag as one part of the Social Democratic triad, and its links to the other two parts—the SPD and the SPD-led government. It examines the Fraktion to see how it balanced multiple interests, how it enhanced internal cohesion, and why it could not maintain the cohesion after the New Left increased its power in the Fraktion. The chapter explores the SPD's involvement in a federal institution, the Bundesrat, through the Lander which it governed or shared in governing. In West Germany, the Fraktionen of the governing parties must have close ties to their party organizations and to the government to maintain policy coordination.
