The New German Constitution

by René Brunet

The question is serious; for in this edifice so logically constructed all parts are mutually interdependent, and the whole will not endure unless the parts are solid. The downfall of any of them will drag down the others. Political institutions will not function unless economic provisions assure industry and commerce sufficient prosperity. But economic institutions will be swept away if the government is overwhelmed and ceases to fulfil its mission.

The Constitution begins with making the Reich a state as unitary as possible without completely suppressing every trace of the federal régime. But there are strong centrifugal tendencies. In Prussia there are several provinces that demand to be formed into distinct states. Throughout the Reich there are several states that demand the return to a purely federal régime, if not actually the complete separation from the German Reich. Will these tendencies be strong enough to bring about a relaxation of the unitary bond, if not actually the disintegration of the Reich? We have already pointed out the difference, for example, separating Catholic, peasant and conservative Bavaria from Protestant, industrial and socialist Prussia. The States were able to endure without much difficulty the hegemony of a victorious, powerful, prosperous Prussia, a hegemony by which they profited. But the same States resent the thought that a Prussia, which they hold responsible for the defeat and which they now see much weakened, should want to keep them still under its yoke and to attempt, under the pretext of unity, to absorb the Reich. They feel this all the more strongly since the future is dark. Prussia has been dangerously stricken and it may appear more advantageous not to tie up too intimately their own interests with those of such a state.

Once more Prussia holds the fate of Germany in its hands. If, renouncing the attitude which it has maintained since the Revolution, Prussia permits a transformation of some of its provinces into states, or if it accords them an autonomy so great that they will be in effect assimilated into states, then the federalist or separatist tendencies will probably lose much of their strength, and the unitarism desired by the Constitution will be able to maintain itself and even to develop. But if Prussia, relying on its strength and prestige, diminished though they be, insists on keeping the other German states, willing or not, in a Reich dominated by it, then it may be that the federalist or separatist tendencies will prevail.

The political institutions of Germany are as strongly impregnated with the democratic idea as possible. The majority is sovereign. But there are minorities, to the right and to the left, that aspire to dictatorship. It seems little likely that another attempt like that of Kapp and Lüttwitz will succeed any better than the last attempt—at least unless a sudden and complete change in the political orientation of the people takes place. On the other side, the Independents, for whom even in Berlin a coup d’état may be perhaps easy enough, know that they would have against them the great majority of the German people, and their leaders openly declare that their hour has not yet come. If in the domain of democratic doctrine a change seems likely to come, it is probable that it will appear in the form of a right expressly accorded to economic associations or, in a still more general manner, to producers, to exercise a special and direct influence on the government. If the Provisional Economic Council succeeds, it is possible that Germany will broaden the experiment and attempt a true Economic Parliament.

Parliamentary government has been accepted but it is mistrusted. There have also been introduced a whole series of measures such as the referendum, initiative, the nomination and the impeachment of the President by the people, which are not only logical applications of the democratic principle, but which are also assurances against any possible misdeeds of parliamentarism. This is a splendid proof of trust in democracy. It is for the future to say whether it is justified.

As a matter of fact the referendum and initiative await the law which is to organize them. What will these institutions produce in a country as vast as Germany? It is easy to see that they will strikingly increase the burden of governmental machinery, and one asks oneself whether they will not incur the risk of completely impeding its functioning. For the success of these institutions, we must suppose a sufficiently firm political education and intelligence, a public that knows its wishes and how to make them prevail, a Parliament and a Cabinet skilled in recognizing the wishes of the nation and ready to submit to them. Because of the mistrust of parliamentarism, it has been decided that the President shall be elected directly by the people. He is endowed with power by the nation and placed near to the Reichstag in order to control it. But may he not become too strong, and is there not a danger that he will abuse his powers to the great injury of liberty and democracy itself? The present President has been elected by the National Assembly. Considerable as are the powers which the Constitution gives him, he is actually one of the least powerful chiefs of state in the world. Will matters be different when he is elected by the whole people? Will he be strong enough, or too strong?

This democracy which does not fear the plebiscite, has expressly excluded the monarchical form for the Reich and for the States. There are, nevertheless, here and there, particularly in Bavaria, monarchical plots. Will the Constitution have here, too, enough force to command obedience? It does not seem for the moment that a monarchical restoration, no matter of what dynasty its pretender, would have any serious chance of succeeding. For, until some new state of affairs, the working class, which would permit a dictatorship exercised by itself, will probably oppose every attempt at a return to the abolished personal régime.

The Economic Constitution departs much more from old customs than the political Constitution.

The idea of the Councils is probably the only really new idea that has appeared in the public law of modern states since the war. German law has given this idea solemn consecration and has embodied it in the Constitution. But up to now it has given it only the most restricted application. The Factory Workers Councils have hardly begun to function, and the working class has not yet any clear notion of the manner in which it will use the power given by the law to these new organisms.

The doctrine of the Councils leads naturally to nationalization. For to confide the administration of the whole of an industry to Economic Councils, in which the workers are represented by the side of the employers and consumers, is to make a direct application of the Mitbestimmungsrecht. But other considerations are also tending to give this system a place of increasing importance. “The free play of economic forces” is no longer being upheld. It is affirmed everywhere that classic liberalism has had its day, and that in order to improve the economic situation so extremely unfavourable in all the modern states, it is not enough that things be allowed freely to take their course. It is now thought that “let alone” leads to bankruptcy. One no longer believes in the former principles that held as absolute the right to private property, the right of work, liberty of commerce, and freedom of contract. To-day these rights are held to be limited by the general good and must be exercised by the individual in the interest of all.