The New German Constitution

by René Brunet

This mechanism represents obvious advantages. It insures to each party exactly as many members as it should receive according to the number of votes cast for it throughout the whole state. It realizes the greatest possible use of remnants of votes, and consequently satisfies as completely as possible the exigencies of proportional representation. All attempts by the government or by a majority at a cunning and dishonest division of the country into artificial electoral districts are thus eliminated. In addition this system permits the possibility on the part of parties to give seats to candidates who have exceptional parliamentary experience and who play political rôles of the first order, but who despise mixing in local political struggles, such as may be considered among the principal influences in the lowering of the personal character of parliament. The ticket of the Reich permits each elector to vote at the same time for the man in whom the locality has confidence, who knows the needs of his districts and of his electors, as well as for the leaders who direct his party.

The system of Baden can be in turn applied in different modes. To give the public a chance to discuss these modes and to pronounce on this matter, the government of the Reich in January, 1920, published three advance projects of electoral law, each project defining and regulating a particular modality.

Project A introduced the Baden system in its purest form. It provided for electoral districts in which the number of voters was generally sufficient to elect six members; the unutilized votes in each district would be immediately summed up in a ticket for the Reich, where representation would be apportioned in the same manner as within the district.

Project B provided for electoral districts of four members each. But between the district tickets and the ticket for the Reich there would be a third: several adjoining electoral districts being united in “a group of districts,” in which lists called “tickets of the groups of districts” would have to be presented. The unutilized votes in the electoral districts would be first added up within the “union of districts” and credited to the ticket of this union. The ticket for the Reich would then receive only the unutilized fractions of each group.

Project C provided for electoral districts of the same extent and for groups of districts of the same nature as Project B. But parties would be free to present or not tickets in the groups of districts, the understanding being, that if they decided to present for election a list of candidates in each group of districts, they could not present lists within the districts of the group. This provision was designed to answer the following need. Groups of electors, not numerous enough to obtain in the first instance one or more seats in this or that district, could unite in groups of the same party for adjoining districts to present a ticket in common (a ticket of the group of districts) which would apply for the whole group or for only some of the districts entering into this group. While the big parties, to avoid the inconveniences of cumbersome tickets, would present in general a list of candidates by districts, the little parties would be able to present but one ticket for several districts, which would enable them to secure seats they could not otherwise win.

The project of the electoral law which was presented by the Cabinet to the Reichsrat on March 2, 1920, adopted the mechanism of project C.

The Cabinet justified its choice as follows: It is only in small districts that the indispensable contact between electors and their deputies can be maintained and, that long lists of candidates, which always lead to unpleasant surprises, can be avoided. If the electoral districts are reduced to no more than four deputies each, as project C would have it, the first candidate on each list would have in general the best chance of being elected; which would in most cases assure representation to the most intelligent electors in the district. The criticism which can be made against the ticket for the Reich that a certain number of members can be sent to Parliament elected not directly by the people but by the executive committees of the parties, is reduced to a minimum in project C as compared to project A, by the introduction of the tickets for the groups of districts. The number of deputies to be elected on the ticket for the Reich is thereby reduced and the influence of executive committees of the parties is diminished in favour of the influence of local organizations.

On the other hand, project B could not be supported. The establishment, the examination, and the publication of each of the lists of candidates for each of the three degrees to which the division of seats would be made, must offer serious difficulties, given the brief time to which would be reduced the preparations of elections. According to [Article 63] of the Constitution, elections must be held at the latest on the sixtieth day after the expiration of the legislature or the dissolution of the Reichstag. Electoral authorities could not, except with hasty and desperate work, assure in such a short space of time the preparation of elections of the three degrees. In addition, system B has the inconvenience of requiring a considerable number of candidates before it is possible to foretell, even approximately, how many candidates of each of the two first degrees would be elected. It is true, however, that it had the advantage of reducing to a minimum the number of candidates elected on the ticket for the Reich.