So complicated that some Germans

don't even understand it.

But its advocates argue that complexity

actually makes Germany's elections

some of the fairest in the world.

Like the U.S. government,

the German federal government

is made up of three main parts:

the judiciary, the executive branch

and the legislative branch.

The legislative branch includes

two chambers of parliament:

the Bundesrat and the Bundestag.

But Germans only vote directly

for members of the Bundestag in federal elections.

So that's what we'll focus on today.

The Bundestag is the legislative branch

of the German government,

based here in Berlin.

Think of it like the U.S. House of Representatives

or the U.K. House of Commons.

Every four years Germans vote to elect members

of the Bundestag in parliamentary elections.

There's a base number of 598 seats

up for election in the Bundestag.

Here's where it gets confusing.

Germans are asked to cast

not one, but two votes.

On the left side of the ballot,

Germans choose a member of parliament

from their own constituency.

Think of this like Americans voting

for a congressperson in their district.

There are 299 districts in Germany,

so directly-elected representatives make up

about half of the Bundestag.

So if I'm a voter here in Cologne

and I've got my ballot

I get one vote for one candidate,

here in my district.

The second vote, on the right side of the ballot,

is for a political party.

This vote determines how the remaining

299 seats will be divided up

among Germany's various political parties.

So back in Cologne I also get a second vote.

This one goes towards one of

Germany's political parties,

like the Social Democratic Party

or the Christian Democratic Union.

Political parties in Germany's 16 states

put together lists of candidates.

The results from the second vote

determine how many of these candidates

will get off the list and

get a seat in parliament.

A party has to receive at least 5%

of the second votes in a state

to qualify for a seat.

Cologne is in Germany's most populous state,

called North Rhine-Westphalia.

About 18 million Germans live here.

Because of that they get to fill

the largest share of seats

remaining in the Bundestag.

Are you with me?

Because here's where it gets

even more complicated.

The number of seats in the Bundestag

often actually exceeds 598.

Sometimes Germans split their ballots,

meaning they vote for a candidate

from one party in their first vote

and for a different political party

in their second vote.

This can throw off the balance

of seats in parliament,

so that one party is more strongly

represented than they should be

based on the results of

the proportionate second votes.

To make up for this

Germans created something called

“overhang" and "balance seats.”

Basically these are extra seats

in the Bundestag to make sure

every candidate who was directly elected

gets a seat, while at the same time

making sure political parties are

still proportionally represented,

based on the number of votes they got.

So right after the 2013 elections

there were actually 631 seats in the Bundestag,

including 33 overhang and balance seats.

One of the first tasks of

the newly-elected Bundestag

is to vote for the most

powerful person in Germany,

the federal chancellor.

But that's easier said than done.

To form a government,

the chancellor needs to receive

an absolute majority in parliament.

That means getting more than half the votes

of the members of the Bundestag.

But Germany has a bunch of political parties

so receiving more than half the seats

in parliament is uncommon.

That's where a coalition comes in,

where the biggest party teams up

with other smaller political parties

to get the votes they need.

So after the 2013 elections,

the CDU, Angela Merkel's party,

and the CSU, formed a coalition government

with the Social Democrats.

Once a coalition is formed

members of parliament vote

to elect the chancellor.

It's the chancellor who chooses

members of his or her cabinet,

which includes federal ministers similar

to secretaries in the U.S. presidential cabinet.

Chancellors serve four-year terms

and don't have term limits.

Helmut Kohl is the longest-serving chancellor to-date.

He was in office for 16 years.

Okay, I know that was a lot,

so why even bother with all of this complexity?

To understand why, well, we have to

look to the history books.

Many Germans saw the failure of

the Weimar Republic as

the failure of the country's

fragmented parliamentary system.

After World War II,

the Federal Republic of Germany

transferred power from the president

toward the Bundestag

and encouraged political majorities

to pass legislation.

Today the role of the German president

is mostly ceremonial.

And it's harder for extremist parties

to get in power with that 5% vote threshold.

The German election structure has resulted

in a stable government for more than 60 years.

But stable definitely doesn't mean simple.

Hey guys, it's Elizabeth, thanks for watching.

You can check out more of our videos over here,

including one about how Europe is

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Auf wiedersehen.