Research & Science

mappp reveals the actual overall context of lawmaking at the federal level. The mapping provides a shared foundation of knowledge that helps users navigate the complex process, identify key areas, and discuss individual findings within their broader context. The Atlas for Politics, Processes, and Participation is thus not only a political education project but also an ongoing, interdisciplinary research project.

The mapping, which forms the basis of the Atlas, brings together formal procedures and informal routines in a diagrammatic form for the first time. Through interdisciplinary research at the intersection of political science and design research, legal foundations and rules of procedure were consolidated and then supplemented and reviewed in workshops and discussions with practitioners from ministries, parliaments, and the Federal Chancellery. The Atlas can thus serve as an important foundation for research in various directions.

Furthermore, it promotes exchange among disciplines that focus on lawmaking: party, election, and parliamentary research; administrative science; policy research; and constitutional law. The mapping raises new questions and creates an infrastructure for further interdisciplinary research projects. The diagrammatic mapping has resulted in the development of a transferable method that allows for the comparative analysis of other political processes and national legislative frameworks.

• Formal and Informal Processes in a Single Diagram

• Validated through more than 20 iterations with experts from academia and the professional field

• A solid foundation for follow-up research and comparative studies

• Diagrammatic Mapping as an Interdisciplinary Research Method

• Completely free of charge and a nonprofit organization

We are working to expand the Atlas through further research on additional political processes, and we welcome interest from all disciplines in working with the Atlas and diagrammatic mapping as a method. If you are interested, please contact us at: mappp@gestaltungszentrale.org

Scientific Publications

• Siefken, Cartier, Kampe (2026): Kartografie der Gesetzgebung: Der lange Weg von der Idee zum Bundesgesetz, in: Patrick Hilbert, Julian Krüper, Arne Pilniok (Hrsg.), Die Organisationsverfassung der Parlamente, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.

• Sven T. Siefken (2026): Der Deutsche Bundestag. Eine Einführung. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.