Couldn’t spend money without a budget, could increase the military without a budget, couldn’t arrest political opponents, couldn’t censor newspapers, couldn’t realistically - and never did - change the constitution. Barely managed to alter the balance between federation and states in 50 years. - ThreadSky

phkrause.bsky.social • 74 days ago

Couldn’t spend money without a budget, could increase the military without a budget, couldn’t arrest political opponents, couldn’t censor newspapers, couldn’t realistically - and never did - change the constitution. Barely managed to alter the balance between federation and states in 50 years.

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phkrause.bsky.social•74 days ago

Yeah, not the UK or France, but far away from autocracy

pseudoerasmus.bsky.social•74 days ago

I know I'm arguing against Germany's very dearly held national self-image ;-) but my point is that when cabinet, military forces & the bureaucracy are not answerable to a parliament, it is not a true Rechtsstaat -- it is rule BY law in which the executive voluntarily binds himself to law and

phkrause.bsky.social•73 days ago

Ha, but you are arguing *for* Germany’s very dearly held national self-image… you are making a Sonderweg argument that would get a lot of applause in many a retirement home for German social scientists

phkrause.bsky.social•73 days ago

I see the institutional development, esp post-1900, basically in the mainstream of Western Europe, messy, contested and rapidly changing.

phkrause.bsky.social•73 days ago

Military budgets are a case in point - tell me which one of these is the militarized autocracy?

pseudoerasmus.bsky.social•73 days ago

Much better comparison: Parliament and the Assemblée Nationale were fully sovereign during the war in 1914-18. Can’t say the same for the Reichstag during the war

pseudoerasmus.bsky.social•73 days ago

How on earth is it a Sonderweg argument? I say explicitly that Germany evolved toward an open political equilibrium by 1900. That’s in the counter-Sonderweg tradition!

phkrause.bsky.social•73 days ago

Point taken - this from earlier is your Sonderweg argument: https://bsky.app/profile/pseudoerasmus.bsky.social/post/3le3kjt5u5k2b. I would say the shift away from autocratic rule started in 1848 and developments post-1871 all went in that direction, bumps on the road here and there.

pseudoerasmus.bsky.social•73 days ago

that’s not a Sonderweg argument because I was not saying Germany was exceptional — it was not — but there is a clear difference between British rule of law and German Rechtsstaat. Rule of law in England was forced on the king — twice by overthrow —

pseudoerasmus.bsky.social•73 days ago

I talk about evolution from 1870 to 1900, and you reply with Germany being in the western European mainstream post-1900.

phkrause.bsky.social•73 days ago

I'm glad that's how narrow the disagreement is now - I said especially post-1900, I very much think this applies to 1870-1900 as well

pseudoerasmus.bsky.social•74 days ago

and his only constraint is his fear that imposing his will too arbitrarily would invite a violent reaction. The fiscal powers of the Reichstag were limited at first, because the German state had revenues outside the control of the Reichstag but governments had to get new revenue eventually

pseudoerasmus.bsky.social•74 days ago

....because German military budgets were getting so large (e.g., naval expansion). Bismarck is known to have entertained rule by decree many times, and I suspect this was possible before 1890 but probably not after 1890

pseudoerasmus.bsky.social•74 days ago

so I would put it this way: unified Germany in 1871 could have gone one of two ways: a more absolutist path, or a more parliamentary path. But industrialisation itself created social groups which would have resisted arbitrary rule, so probably the absolutist path was definitely closed by 1900.

pseudoerasmus.bsky.social•74 days ago

in this interpretation, imperial Germany slowly evolved into a political equilibrium where the state no longer had the power to govern extraconstitutionally even if it wanted to, except in times of extreme emergency.

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