INTRODUCTION The Weimar Republic ran from the Kaiser’s abdication in November 1918 through to the selection of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor in January 1933. The system was highly democratic in that all adults, including women, elected members of the Reichstag. The Weimar Republic had several successes in social issues and did well to survive a number of major economic and political crises. However, it never succeeded in gaining enough legitimacy in the eyes of the German people and the Great Depression brought this issue to a head. POLITICAL Successes: Creating a democracy out of the ashes of defeat and the threat of Revolution in 1918/19 Creating a modern democratic constitution with explicit freedoms, PR, female suffrage and an elected Presidency.
However, the Prime Minister in reality is far more powerful than what he looks to be. The Prime Minister can hire anyone that is a UK citizen to become part of the cabinet through appointing someone as a peer in the House of Lords. Although he picks solely from the House of Lords and Commons, he can appoint anyone who is a peer to then join the cabinet. There is one case, where a former MP, Peter Mandleson, recently joined the cabinet as Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform for a third time in 2008 despite not being an MP or a peer. This power certainly erodes the idea of ‘first among equals’.
On the other hand, the single-issue parties, they only focus on only one public policy matter. The chapter also talks about President’s party is almost always more solidly united and better well-organized compare with other major party. However, competition often caused the leadership group in the party out of power. Federalism is a major reason for the decentralized nature of the two major political parties and also the nominating process is also a major cause of party decentralization. Often, the parties will fight with each other and compete with each other within their party during the nominating process.
One political policy that was a major success were the newly developed Basic laws. These were introduced to try remove any remaining Nazi or was legacies. One of the Basic laws was that a new political parliament known as the Bundestag was to be set up. This created a democracy in West Germany. This was successful because Safe guards were put in place to ensure that no one could ever take all power as Hitler Did when he was President of the post war Reichstag.
Part of the system is the introduction of proportional representation that meant parties in the Riechtag would gain seats depending upon the number of votes they got in the most recent election. The consequence of this was that it brought a number of parties together with the help of another key feature of the constitution, the “Bill of Rights”. This meant that parties could express their views, as the “Bill of Rights” was a law that gave people the freedom of speech. This union made representation of many opposing parties very open, which effectively made the Weimar constitution more democratic. However P.R made it difficult for a lot of parties to gain a majority of seats in the Reichstag, which made it harder for one major party to take control of the country.
Whereas what works best for the German culture is a multi party dual executive form of government where a majority of the power is located in the chancellor and the other branches are not quite as important but still serve their rolls to help the government to move forward. Ultimately, the distinguishing features of the two governments may seem small but they are actually quite significant and are the result of the two nations drastic difference in the way their relative histories progressed. The American presidential system is the result of the breaking away from the Great Britain; and the German presidential system is a direct result of the fall of Hitlers Nazi Germany. Both forms of democracy rose as a solution to tyranny and oppression and consequently produced two of the worlds front running
Kaiser Wilhem II was an unpredictable, intelligent man with a poor judgement, hardly the kind of person you would give almost unchallenged political powers. The Kaiser's constitutional powers showed that he certainly had enough potential powers to be a authoritarian leader and i believe he fulfilled all his potential by using his power to 'ensure the constitution preserves the power of the elite' which was Bismarks main aim as the chancellor. The Kaiser could appoint and dismiss the Chancellor, dissolve the Reichstag with the consent of the Bundesrat, control Germany's foreign policy and serves as the commander of chief of the armed forces. The plethora of consitutional powers the Kaiser held clearly supports the
Why a more centralized and stronger constitution/government was needed? The Utility of the Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection (#10) is perhaps the most famous and highly regarded of the Federalist papers. It was written by one of the Founding Fathers of the Constitution, James Madison, and was published by the Dailey Advisor on Thursday, November 22, 1787. (1) Howard Zinn says, “Madison argued that a representative government… vote of the majority.”(2) According to Madison a faction is “a number of citizens, whether amounting to the majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse or passion, or of interest.”(3) When Madison says majority and minority, he is referring to the
Congress has elastic clauses which mean they can make any law they like. An example of this is congresses power to declare war power, despite the President being Commander-In-Chief, the last time this occurred was in 1941 on Japan. Congress’ laws can also be vetoed by President. A full veto can occur, whereby the President can completely reject a bill. For example Clinton vetoed the budget reconciliation bill 1995 to save Arctic wildlife refuge, plus 35 other bills.
Extra credit: Movie “W” President George. W. Bush left an unforgettable mark in American history with Iraq war and a burden of debt after ending his government career. American majority remembered “W” as the one who caused all the problems for United States in the present. However, has anyone considered the reasons why he could win the election to become President since United States is a Democrat country- a country of people, for people, and by people? President is supposed to be the one who make decisions, but he could not just do everything by himself since the United States’ political systems is known as “separation of powers” and is also known as “check and balance.” Then should people think they have become bias when they talk about “W” as the source of all problems during the time?