The Articles of Confederation was a first attempt at a constitution for the United States while it was fighting to gain independence from the British government in the Revolutionary War. First proposed in 1776 by Richard Henry Lee at the Second Continental Congress, the Articles of Confederation were able to maintain some stability for the country through the end of the war. However, it proved to be a highly inadequate form of government when it could not provide for the economic and political demands of a developing nation. The Articles of Confederation were not able support a strong centralized government, therefore resulting in a lack of an authoritative presence with regard to domestic and foreign affairs affecting the thirteen states. The national government was weak and disconnected, and the federal powers were greatly lacking.
The main reason for the failure of the Frankfurt parliament was indefinitely its lack of military power, which could have been used to combat any opposing forces that didn’t follow with their decisions. However Prussia and King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (King Frederick William or KFWIV) must also be counted into the failure of the Frankfurt Parliament, as must the factors of Austrian presence and Internal Problems within the Frankfurt Parliament. Primarily, military power was non-existent in the Frankfurt Parliament and in its endeavours, as there was simply no money to pay for an army. Many states in Germany had armies, but none were as powerful as that of Prussia or Austria. The parliament would have been able to muster volunteers, but there was no money to equip them with weapons, and the only way that the Parliament would have been able to make money, would be by introducing taxes.
In a democracy along the lines of the United States or Great Britain, Hitler could have never risen to power. (1) Germany had no democratic tradition, and in fact many parties were deeply opposed to the creation of a democracy. These included old monarchists, the Army, the industrialists, the Nationalists and several other conservative parties. Many, like the Nazis to come, were not so much members of the Republic as they were conspirators to overthrow it. When it came time to create the Republic, the conservative parties took no part in the process.
Finally, Hobson partially blames the ineffectiveness of Imperialism on the British ideal of Anglo superiority, and the British misunderstanding of other cultures (Winks 11). Therefore, as argued by Hobson, British Imperialism of India was neither socially, nor politically, nor economically beneficial for Britain. The British elevated social tensions in India because the British misunderstood Indian culture, were constantly forced to over-expand the British Government, and spent endless amounts in an attempt to maintain order. To begin with, Britain’s Imperialism of India was not socially beneficial. The British were unsuccessful in establishing a working relationship with the Indian people, and, as a result, British Imperialism never reached its maximum potential.
Also, another issue with the court system was all the power to the King. This was an issue because a large mass of people (The 3rd Estate) had no share in the government, which meant that the likelihood that they were unhappy was high; to make it worse, Louis XVI was not a great ruler. He was famous for the line, “The thing is legal because I wish it,” which basically means, “What I say goes,” which is not a good plan because there is no planning or foresight involved. Also, he used the lettres de cachet, which is like a warrant where any critic of the government would receive a letter that
This was the weakness of the league. Also Germany wasn’t a member due to the reason of creating WWI and USSR wasn’t a member too as they were communists. Other problem includes the truth that it was created as a part of Treaty of Versailles which indirectly meant that the league will be a serving favor of the big4. Due to these, member states were able to create chaos in the League where it already didn’t have any controls. Also the league wasn’t responsible enough to take care of all the problems in Europe as its powers were not so strong.
Another Major flaw was that “the country, whose president, Woodrow Wilson, had dreamt up the idea of the League - America -, refused to join it.” The league’s most powerful militaries Britain and France not only suffered casualties, but also economically as they were greatly in debt to the United States. Because of this neither country was enthusiastic to get involved in disputes that did not affect Western Europe. Therefore the League had no military might and could only enforce economic sanctions in hope that they worked against aggressive nations. All these flaws point to signs that the League of Nations was a failure. However, even though there were a few setbacks, the league was a success in many ways.
Anti-Federalist felt that the Constitution gave more power to central government and less to the states. They also argued that the constitution would become too weak because the central government wouldn’t be able to run all states as a result of being too distant and removed from interest of common citizens and farmers. They feared that the Federalists' new government would be too similar to the harsh regimes of Europe which held great power and thus repressed the people. Anti-Feds were extremely scared of a strong central government and the fact that under the new Constitution, the federal government was more powerful than individual states. Another argument was that the states could not print money
Hamilton was an ardent believer that the states were incapable of uniting the people politically and economically. He feared the interests of the states would lead to chaos due to “an excess of the spirit of liberty, which has made the particular states show a jealousy of all power not in their own hands” (Morse, 1890). Hamilton was leery of state power because of how ineffective the Articles of Confederation were in promoting a national identity capable of defending the homeland and creating the basic foundation for economic development. Unlike many of his colleagues, Hamilton did not grow up a child of privilege and carried with him the stigma of being a bastard because his mother was previously married and his biological father abandoned the family. He grew up on the small Caribbean island of Nevis that “generated more wealth for Britain than all of her North American colonies combined” (Chernow, 2004).
The Weimar Republics’ aim was to create the perfect democracy, but there were ultimately two flaws that destroyed the Republic: Proportional representation and Article 48. Proportional representation meant that, instead of voting for an MP like we did in Britain, they voted for a party, which turned out to be disastrous because there wasn’t a party strong enough t get the majority of votes, so therefore no laws could be passed. Article 48 meant that, in the case of an emergency, the president did not need the agreement of the Reichstag, but could issue decrees, the problem with this was that they didn’t state what an emergency was and, in the end, it turned out to be a way for Hitler to take power legally. The Weimar Republic faced violent uprisings from various groups, and also had disastrous economic problems. Germany between 1918-1919 was in chaos, people were starving, the Kaiser had fled, Bands of soldiers called ‘Freikorps’ refused to disband and formed private armies.