The Bundesrat, the upper house of Germany's parliament. The Bundesrat is made up of representatives from each of the German states, and they must approve all legislation which has a direct impact on the German states -- taxation, budget, education, etc. That makes up a little over 60% of all legislation, giving the Bundesrat considerable power. State governments appoint representatives to the Bundesrat who then vote according to the interests of the various German states. Originally the Bundesrat was designed to check the power of political parties, as most state governments and elections were not driven by party politics. However, by making the Bundesrat such an important body the parties had an incentive to get involved in state politics, acheiving the opposite of what the law intended: parties were strengthened and spread their influence onto state government. The Bundesrat's power is a check on the Chancellor and the Bundestag, and reflects the federal nature of the German system. The move of the capital to Berlin certainly gave the Bundesrat a more impressive home: click here to see the Bundesrat's old building in Bonn. Remember that Germany's proportional representative system means that coalitions govern, not only the federal government but also state governments. This makes the Bundesrat sometimes unpredictable. The CDU, for instance, battled against a tax reform by the Social Democratic government in summer 2000. They expected their opposition to stop the SPD plan in the Bundesrat, as the CDU governed or were part of a coalition in enough states to block SPD reforms. However, the SPD convinced the Christian Democrats involved in state coalitions that the reforms were a good idea, and the Bundesrat surprisingly passed the law, much to the shock and disdain of the CDU.