Group discipline: Is it the training machine of democracy?

Group discipline is not a harmless organizational tool, it is a political training machine that degrades the parliament to a predictable voting factory and gradually undermine the promise of the free mandate. A system is created behind the facade of cultivated rituals, rules of procedure and solemn oath in which the individual MPs hardly everis a representative of an constituency, but an interchangeable vocal cattle, whose main task is to raise your hand at the right moment.

Betrayal of free mandate?

In the constitution, this is ideal: MPs are only obliged to their conscience, not instructions and not internal party orders. In reality, however, faction discipline means that this freedom of conscience degenerates into a decorative formula, while faction sessions and back rooms determine how to “close” to vote, and whoever is wrong risk noticeable disadvantages.The free mandate shrinks to a theoretical fig leaf, behind which is a system of pressure, expectation of loyalty and subtle extortion, which turns the original idea of personal responsibility into the opposite.

Emptying of debate culture

Parliament should be the place where different positions collide openly, arguments remain visible, minorities must be visible and majorities have to be declared. Instead, the faction discipline turns debates into experienced productions, where the result has long been lashed, speeches become a pure backdrop and real doubts behind closed doorsbe dealt with or simply swallowed. Anyone who watches in the plenum does not experience a lively discussion, but a theater with a pre-determined screenplay, in which the decisive direction has long been directed to the parliamentary group leaders.

Blocked government control

A parliament that seriously wants to control its government needs MPs who, if necessary, vote against their own leadership and against their own camp. But parliamentary group discipline ensures that control bodies, investigative committees and critical questions are only allowed to go as far as the coalition peace allows, and that majorities are reflexively behind “their” governmentAsk, even if there is doubt, scandals or wrong decisions. The control function thus degenerates into a half-hearted ritual in which the majority nods off their own executive instead of examining them, and the opposition plays its part, knowing full well that the coalition’s closed ranks vote down every attempt at enlightenment.

Concentration of power in faction peaks

Group discipline specifically means that the power of hundreds of elected officials is in the hands of a few chairman, management and backbencher with key positions. Decisions on candidatures, committee chairs, speaking times and political careers are made in tight rounds, while the rest of the group is reduced to this courseto support, even if he contradicts his own beliefs. Instead of transparent negotiation, a pyramid-shaped structure is created, in which a few have the say above and many are to follow well below if they don’t want to be pushed out of the inner circle.

Dependence and humiliation of the deputies

Anyone who knows that the position on the list, the committee seat or the chance of a visible position depends on the favor of the parliamentary group leadership, will quickly learn how dangerous deviations can become. The message is clear: whoever opens his mouth too often, who votes against the group line, who identifies too much with his own constituency instead of party tactics, risksPolitical isolation, exclusion from important bodies or the slow end of one’s own career. Elected representatives of the people become insecure supplicants who have to constantly weigh up whether they can “suffer” a different position instead of simply representing what they have competed for.

Depoliticization and populist escape routes

The stronger factions demand discipline, the more visible diversity of political positions disappears from the public debate. Complex questions are evaporated onto a uniform line behind closed doors, so that only smooth, tactically grounded positions appear on the outside, which have little room for doubt, nuances or honest contradictionslet The result is a massive depoliticization: Citizens only see homogeneous blocks, hardly recognize any internal conflicts and turn away in frustration from a system that acts like a hermetic shielded power play – an ideal breeding ground for populist forces, who are the only “independent” alternatives to present themselves.

Legal Fiction and Legitimatory Vacuum

Officially, hard faction coercion is inadmissible in many democracies because it is incompatible with the idea of a free mandate. But as long as informal sanctions, pressure on list places and committee careers, and internal party discipline mechanisms are tolerated, the separation of permissible faction discipline and inadmissible faction is a comfortable legalFiction that only needs to cover everyday practice in a makeshift way. The result is a dangerous hole of legitimacy: officially there is freedom of conscience, effectively determine Power calculation and faction reason, which erodes the credibility of the entire construction and permanently damages the population’s trust in parliamentary democracy.