The unitary character of the Constitution appeared not only in the fact that it recognized in principle the right of the Reich to regulate the territorial status of the states. It appeared also in the clauses relating to the division of authority between the Reich and the States, provisions that took from the latter and gave to the Reich a considerable quantity of powers of a constitutional character as well as legislative and administrative.
1.—THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATES.
The Constitution of the German Empire of 1871 recognized the right of the member states to choose whatever constitutions they desired.[14] The Empire never concerned itself with the form of government chosen by any of its states nor with the different provisions they inserted in their constitutions.
Germany was thereby the only federated state which thus left, theoretically at least, such a latitude to its member states. The United States and Switzerland, for instance, impose certain fundamental provisions on the constitutions of their component states, relating to the form of their State.
This latitude could not exist in the new Germany for the Reich, having adopted a democratic and republican constitution, could not, without condemning the very principles on which it had been built, agree that such and such of the member states should remain monarchical. Proscribed in the Reich, monarchy would also have to be barred in the states. Also the co-existence of both monarchies and republics within the Reich would have something so inconsistent within itself that it would run particularly counter to the centralizing tendency which was being so eagerly promoted.
[Article 17] therefore indicates to the states the bases on which they must erect their future constitutions, in order to insure a harmony of principles between the Constitution of the Reich and the constitutions of the states. These bases would have to be analogous to those serving as the foundation of the Constitution of the Reich. One can group these principles under three heads:
1. The democratic principle.—All power springs from the people; as a consequence national representatives must be elected by popular vote; that is to say, they must be elected by all the Germans, men and women, by universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage following the rules of proportional representation. The same applies for municipal councils. On the other hand the states remain free to provide different modes of suffrage in elections in wards, districts and provinces.
2. The republican form of the government.—All monarchical restoration is forbidden.
3. Parliamentary government.—But this provision was only desired by the Constituent Assembly; it is not strictly imperative. Preuss formally declared in committee meeting that any constitution, for example such as that existing in Switzerland, which provided for a council elected by popular vote, would be admissible; but there would be excluded a régime of despotism in which the government was completely independent of the popular Assembly. It mattered little otherwise whether the state adopted the one-chamber system or that of two chambers.
These three principles were accepted without serious difficulty. A twofold point must, however, be noted. First that all Germans could vote in all the states for the election of the popular Chamber, that is to say, for example, a Bavarian could vote at the election of the Prussian Diet. This provision is one of the principles that suppressed almost entirely the nationalistic motive of the individual states; it is clearly characteristic of the unitary tendency of the constitution. In addition to this, [Article 17] adds to the general conditions a special condition in the case of local elections: a year’s residence in the district is necessary for the right to vote.