The New German Constitution

by René Brunet

Finally, project C, in giving to groups of electors the choice of either presenting district tickets or joining groups of neighbouring districts in presenting a common ticket, answered best the need of parties to dispose their forces most effectively within the different districts. It permitted them, so to speak, to group their districts according to their fancy, following their particular needs.

This was in outline the system which the Government designed and submitted to the Reichsrat. But before this assembly finished its scrutiny of it the events of March, 1920, transpired, completely changing the political situation and rendering general elections imperative for the following June. Instead of examining thoroughly, as it had been their intention, the project submitted by the Government, the National Assembly, in considering this project on March 27, was compelled to pass to a vote as quickly as possible. Neither did the Government defend its project with any particular consistency. Minister of the Interior Koch explained that the Government adhered above all to the principle of the automatic system and to the grouping of fractions into a ticket for the Reich. As for the division of German territory into new electoral districts, smaller and more equal in extent than those which had served in the election of the National Assembly, but districts that could be united into “groups of districts,” that was an interesting innovation. But if this was to be effected it would be necessary to adopt in their ensemble the projects admitted to the Assembly. Meanwhile the question presented itself whether the party organizations would be able to accommodate themselves to so radical a change in the division of districts, given the brief delay which would be accorded them until the elections. The Minister referred the question to the deputies themselves to answer, as being in closer contact with the organizations of their parties. The Assembly decided to retain in principle the electoral districts that had served in their own election; the only modifications to be made were those necessitated by very grave imperfections of the distribution.

Having rejected a new distribution of districts, the Assembly had also logically to reject the institution of “tickets of groups of districts” as a substitute for district tickets; it thus came back to the system of Project A—fixed districts for all parties and the assigning of fractions to a ticket for the Reich.

This ticket for the Reich, therefore, would have been presented if there had not been brought forward some modifications of the principle because of grave inconveniences. Foremost of these was the following objection: In trying to apportion the votes cast by the electors for the National Assembly according to the mechanism provided by Project A, it was seen that 18 per cent of the members of the Reichstag, that is nearly one-fifth, would be elected on the ticket for the Reich and it was estimated that such a result in the elections of future Reichstags would be but little compatible with the constitutional principle of the direct vote. It was decided in rejecting “group-of-districts tickets” to create, nevertheless, groups of districts. Political parties could declare in advance that they would “unite” within these groups the whole or parts of their district tickets, in such manner that the votes cast for these tickets and remaining unutilized would be assigned to the district tickets receiving the largest number of votes. It would not be until this second redistribution that the fractions would be transferred to the ticket for the Reich. The object was to avoid the possibility that by assigning fractions to “joined” tickets and to the ticket for the Reich, the big political parties would be thereby risking loss to the advantage of small groups of electors which could not assemble within any district an appreciable number of votes.

For this reason the following double distribution was adopted. No party will be entitled to a seat by “joining” its district tickets unless one of its tickets has obtained at least 30,000 votes (half of the number necessary to elect a member). No party will be assigned on the ticket for the Reich a larger number of members of the Reichstag than had been elected for that party in the districts on the district tickets.

II.—THE ELECTORATE AND ELIGIBILITY.

In principle every German twenty years old is an elector, without distinction of sex.

Causes for the deprivation of the electoral right of individuals are reduced to a minimum. The only ones denied this right are those who are placed under guardianship and those who have been deprived of their civic rights by a court decision. Bankrupts and paupers preserved their electoral rights, in contrast to their situation before the war. Soldiers who had taken part in the elections for the National Assembly were again disenfranchised so long as they remained under colours. Finally certain other conditions, which did not involve the loss of electoral rights, still prevented their exercise: detention in institutions for mental ailments and imprisonment, including preventive imprisonment. The laws specified, however, that individuals imprisoned for political reasons could demand that measures be taken to permit them to exercise the right to vote.

To be able to vote, when one is an elector, one has to be entered on an electoral list or on an electoral roll, or be furnished with an “electoral certificate.” These last two institutions are unknown in France and must be explained.

Germany ignores the principle known as permanence of electoral lists. Before the Revolution electoral lists were in principle revised for each election to the Reichstag. But the granting to women of the right to vote, which doubled the number of electors, and the fact that thereafter the electors of the Reich would have to vote not only every four years for the Reichstag, but also in the election of the President, and in cases of referendum, initiative, and plebiscites provided by the Constitution, have increased the difficulty of retaining the former system pure and simple.