Stability in Weimar Germany 1918-1924

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  • Created by: Beth_an
  • Created on: 12-03-19 19:40

Stability in Weimar Germany 1918-1924

Advantages

  • SOCIAL : democratic and consistent vote for men and women over 20 (President every 7 years, Reichstag every 4 years)
  • SOCIAL: human rights written into Republic e.g "all Germans equal before the law, right to work and wages, freedom of speech etc
  • POLITICAL: Chancellors decisions required majority of half of Reichstag
  • POLITICAL: Reichstag can debate on issues and reach majorities
  • POLITICAL: Supreme Court = separate from Reichstag and President
  • POLITICAL: proportional representation meant Prussia (largest of 17 states) couldn't dominate and allowed other areas to have impact on government

Disadvantages

  • SOCIAL: right to free speech is democratic but possibly unstable (revolutions etc)
  • SOCIAL: 7 years = long time to wait for another election if disatisfied
  • POLITICAL: President had powers to appoint/ dismiss Reichstag
  • POLITICAL: Supreme commander of armed forces (unstable considering hatred of constitution within army)
  • POLITCAL: Reichsrat could be overridden by Reichstag
  • POLITICAL: many members of army/ civil service anti-democratic and constitution depended on their support
  • POLITICAL: Article 48 allowed President to overrule government in emergencies, could be taken advantage of (Ebert used Article 48 136 times)
  • POLTICAL: proportional representation created large coalition governments of small parties who could negotiate on anything e.g extremist left and right wing parties gained more support than centre/ moderate parties.

Evaluation

Structure was highly democratic in some areas and the ability for women to vote was something not seen in other countries e.g Britain at this time. However, the survival of anti-democratic institutions and poor coalitions created by proportional representation, as well as the undemocratic abilities of the President created unstablitiy within Germany that limited political, economical and social development after TOV

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