Saturday, April 7, 2012

The Weimar Republic

Banknotes used as wallpapers.

The Weimar government was a period of time in Germany history when they tried to imitate a developed country like America by writing their own constitutions similar to that of U.S. But with excessive power assigned to their government which brought the Republic down and created lot of crises.

The first passage that  I choose is among Marx theory about the inevitable collapse of capitalism, stated, "...what Marx underestimated is the ability of capital to delay or to put off the consequences of this laws "laws of the falling rate of profit" by exporting production overseas to take advantage of cheap labor cost." It relates to the crisis in German during this time when the communism is dying out instead of the capitalist as foreseen by the Marx. He thought  that with the hyperinflation going on in Germany, the capitalist will reduce or be eradicated. If they had too much of production with high cost of labor and minimal market, it will lead to fall in their profit, but they found another way out, by exporting their raw materials to another country with cheaper labor for productions. I like this passage because the same thing is happening in America, most of our products are made in China, Japan, Taiwan or any country with cheaper labor to be brought back as finished goods and sold in U.S.A.

For the second sections, I choose The Weimar Constitution, Articles 21, stated, "Members of Parliament represent the entire nation. They have to follow nothing but their conscience and they  are not bound to instructions." It means that their Parliament have uncontrollable right and power without any limitation which can leads to totalitarian government as in the case of Hitlers.  I prefer this Articles because its among the reason why the regime was not successful, there should always be a check and balance in a government. If we can imagine American having such a constitution, we would have been in such a worse situation than we are right now.


1) In Weimar Proportional  representation, it shows more disadvantages by given their government totalitarian power without the public ability to questions them; and the only advantage was that, the  minority citizen had the power to be represented by voting leading to different political parties formation. Some of the disadvantages listed are;
        a) It makes the representative less responsive and less dependent on local voters.
        b) It leads to multiple political parties competing.
        c) The President is granted extensive power without the interference from the public.

2)The leading causes of the decline of the Weimar republic were the totalitarian government caused by the proportional representation; German reparation payment to other countries which leads to America  aids, then the Great depression that affect America also affected them; and the hyperinflation.

3) Hyperinflation is when inflation gets out of control or is very high. The general price level within a specific economy increases rapidly as the functional or internal currency as opposed to a foreign currency. In Germany, its monetary value loses its real value at an accelerating rate.

4) In Weimar Constitution, I think it contained too much power concentrated in the hands of the few especially the government compared to the American constitution that have check and balances. The voice of the totalitarian can be seen and heard in the Weimar constitution, as if it was made for them only.
 
  

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