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The increasing tendency to measure party-political actions directly against the constitution raises the question of the extent to which the constitution can set generally binding standards for parties and to what extent these parties are bound by the constitution.
A binding commitment to the constitution as a whole is explicitly enshrined in the Basic Law only in one place, namely in Article 20 III GG: According to this article, legislation is bound to the constitutional order, and the executive power as well as the judiciary are bound to law and justice. However, in the area of political parties, there is no provision comparable to Article 20 III GG that prescribes a global constitutional binding similar to that of the state. While a binding obligation concerning parties may possibly be established by Article 21 I 3 GG, this relates in any case not to the constitution as such, but only to the "democratic principles," and furthermore, it does not pertain to the actions of the parties in general, but only to their "internal organization." Nevertheless, the absence of an explicit binding provision does not preclude the possibility that the actions of parties may also be measured against the constitution in the same or a similar manner as state actions.
The subject of this work is to what extent this is actually the case. The author addresses numerous practical questions, particularly focusing on quota regulations, rotation resolutions, and coalition agreements of political parties.