terms of that law a Constituent National Assembly (Deutsche Verfassungsgebende Nationalversammlung) was elected by all German men and women over 20 years of age, and the definitive decision with regard to the future constitution of Germany was entrusted to this democratic National Assembly. It met on Feb. 6 1919 at Weimar. The Secretary of State, now become Minister of the Interior, laid before it a draft of the new constitu- tion of the Reich, which, it is true, had been strongly modified in a Particularist sense by the representatives of the Governments of the individual states in the States Committee. These modifica- tions were, however, for the most part eliminated by the National Assembly and its Committee on the Constitution. On July 31 1919 the National Assembly adopted the new constitution of the Reich by 262 votes, cast by the Majority Socialists, the Centre (Catholics) and the Democrats, against a minority of 75, com- posed of the two parties of the Right and the party of the extreme Left. This Constitution of Weimar was promulgated by the president of the Reich on Aug. n 1919, and thus came into force. The fact that the young German Republic had to pass under the terms of the Peace of Versailles simultaneously with the establishment of its constitution prejudicially affected the chances of the latter's becoming familiar to the popular mind, and compromised the new order of the State in a way that was fraught with mischief.
2. Democracy aitd Reichstag. While the old constitution was headed by the statement of the fact that it had originated in a federation of sovereigns under the leadership of the King of Prussia, the new constitution is prefaced in deliberate contrast by the declaration of the national and democratic conception which guided its construction:
The German nation, united in its peoples (Stdmme) and inspired by the determination to renew and to establish its Reich in freedom and justice, to promote peace at home and abroad, and to further social progress, has given itself this Constitution."
If Germany had possessed a national monarchy, there might perhaps, even after terrible defeat, have been a possibility of preserving it. But it was quite impossible, after the collapse of the 22 dynasties and their Prussian head, to entertain the idea of restoring monarchy. The maintenance of the political unity of the German people was only practicable in the form of a democratic republic. The new constitution, nevertheless, retained the designation of " Reich " for the national common- wealth, in spite of the danger of misapprehension which might arise from the connexion existing between the words Reich (Empire) and Kaiser (Emperor) in the French and English languages. In the soul of the German people the idea of its unity has for centuries been so intimately identified with the name " Deutsches Reich " that there could really be no thought of abolishing that designation at a moment when Germany's whole destiny depended upon the vivifying power of the national sense of unity. The German democratic republic is a Reich with- out an emperor and without sovereigns. This is expressed by the first article of the new constitution as follows :
The German Reich is a Republic. The powers of the State proceed from the people.
Linking itself with the traditions of the old German democracy which inspired the movement of 1848, yet at the same time clinging to the memory of the economic expansion of Germany during the last decades, Article 3 enacts:
The colours of the Reich are black, red and gold. The flag of the mercantile marine is black, white and red l with the colours of the Reich in the top inside corner.
While the constitution of the Reich is designed to realize at home the democratic State based on law, it takes its stand in its external aspects with deliberate emphasis upon the basis of international law, for Article 4 says:
The universally recognized rules of international law are accounted as binding constituent parts of the law of the German Reich.
The democratic principle is carried out by the constitution of the Reich in a twofold shape; first in the forms of representative democracy, the highest organs of the German Republic the
1 The colours of the Hohenzollern Empire.
Reichstag and the Reichsprasident being elected by the most extensive democratic franchise; secondly, in an institution of direct democracy the referendum, which has been introduced alongside of the other and, according to the circumstances of the occasion, is exercised as the vote of the people ( Volksabstim- mung), the initiative or demand of the people ( V olksbegehreri) and the decision of the people ( Volksentscheid) .
The suffrage for the Reichstag was universal, equal and direct under the constitution of the Empire; the new constitution (Art. 22) has reduced the age for the exercise of the suffrage from 25 to 20; while for the " passive franchise," i.e. eligibility for the Reichstag, the lowest age limit of 25 has been retained in the Electoral Law of April 27 1920. The vote and likewise eligibility have been conferred upon women entirely on the same footing as upon men. The system of election by majority in single constituencies has been replaced by the proportional system with scrutin de liste. Finally, the election must take place on a Sunday or public holiday. These changes correspond to the demands which the Social Democrats had long ago put forward in regard to these points in their political programme.
There is the same franchise for the election of the president of the Reich as for the referendum. According to the Electoral Law now in force, which, however, will probably one day be altered, the whole territory of the Reich is divided into 35 electoral districts, each of which elects a large number of deputies on the system of strictly separate and closed lists. Thus the list is elected, not the single deputy. To every list as many seats are allotted as the number of times by which the number of votes cast for that list is divisible by 60,000. On this basis the candidates are elected in the order in which their names appear on their list. The total number of Reichstag deputies is accord- ingly not a fixed number; it is determined by the number of votes recorded at the election. The 35 electoral districts are combined into 17 groups of districts, and within the limits of each of these groups the parties may associate their lists in order to secure that remainders of votes under 60,000 may be reckoned conjointly. The further votes which still remain after this process throughout the whole Reich are credited to what is called the " Reic /is liste " of the party for which they are cast, and a deputy is elected for every 60,000 of these remainder votes. A remainder which exceeds 30,000 votes is counted as 60,000. It follows that out of all the votes cast for any party throughout the whole Reich 30,000 at the utmost can be lost as regards their effect upon the result of the elections. In consequence of the extent of the suffrage, which is as wide as it can possibly be, 60% of the whole population of Germany now possess the franchise. The census of 1919 showed the population of Germany to be about 60,000,000. There are therefore close upon 37,000,000 persons in the German Reich who enjoy the franchise.
The old Reichstag itself used to decide disputed elections; but the decision was frequently long delayed, often indeed until the very end of a legislative period; and its impartiality was once and again doubtful. In point of fact, such decisions bore essen- tially the character of the exercise of a judicial function for which Parliament, swayed by political parties, is little fitted. Yet so long as a Parliament has not become absolutely sure of its power in the State, it is wont to watch over this right as over all its other prerogatives with jealous vigilance. Under the new order in Germany the Reichstag is now strong enough to dispense with this judicial function. For the investigation of dis- puted elections the new constitution of the Reich (Art. 31) trans- fers the decision to a court composed of judges and of members of the Reichstag. The mixed composition of the court was adopted in order that the deciding body might continue to have the benefit of expert parliamentary knowledge.
The Reichstag is elected for four years. The duration of the legislative period is a natural subject of conflict between demo- cratic and parliamentary tendencies. Democratic tendencies are in favour of enabling the people, the electorate, to make its voice heard as frequently and as directly as possible, and it therefore urged that the duration of the representative assembly should be brief. On the other hand the efficiency of parliamentary
