Parliamentary Government - W Flashcards
What is the role of the Chancellor?
The Chancellor is the chief minister and advisor of the Kaiser.
What was the Reichstag?
The Reichstag is a government elected by men over 25.
What is the role of the Reichstag?
They discussed and voted on the laws that the Kaiser and his ministers drew up.
What couldn’t the Reichstag do?
The Reichstag couldn’t enforce laws as the Kaiser could ignore them.
What was the Bundesrat and what was their role?
The Bundesrat was made up of representatives from each state.
They discussed laws.
What was a disadvantage of the Bundesrat?
The Kaiser could veto the laws they discussed.
What was the role of the Kaiser?
The Kaiser is the supreme commander of the new German army.
He ruled over all the states in Germany.
He was supported by advisors/ministers and the Chancellor.
What made the Kaiser so powerful?
Each state representative had to consult the Kaiser over new laws.
He could ignore government advice and make his own decisions.
What was the weakness of this system?
The Chancellor had to stay in the Kaiser’s good books, or he could be dismissed.
The 25 individual states controlled income tax, which meant the central government, struggled to raise enough tax to cover its spending.
Prussian influence was dominant although Wilhelm II’s first Chancellor, Caprivi (1890-1894) did give up the position of Prime Minister of Prussia that his predecessor had held.
Industrialisation led to a large rise in Germany’s urban population. Poor working and living conditions were largely ignored by the unelected Chancellor and the Kaiser who held the greatest power in Germany.
What was the Reichstag?
The Reichstag is a government elected by men over 25.
What couldn’t the Reichstag do?
The Reichstag couldn’t enforce laws as the Kaiser could ignore them.
What was a disadvantage of the Bundesrat?
The Kaiser could veto the laws they discussed.
