Revolution, Constitutionalism, and Democracy
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Transcript of Revolution, Constitutionalism, and Democracy
Revolution, Constitutionalism, and Democracy
The German Weimar Republic
Peter Caldwell [“Carl”]Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
The Revolutionary United States
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...":
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...":
“The unanimous Declaration of the united States of America…”
“We the People of the United States of America…”
Representation in the U.S. Constitution
Abbé Sieyès, “What Is the Third Estate?”
Abbé Sieyès
“The Third Estate is the Nation.”
Abbé Sieyès
“The Third Estate is the Nation.”“In every free nation (and every nation ought to be free) there is only one way to put an end to differences about the constitution. If we lack a constitution, then a constitution must be made, and the Nation alone has the right to do so.”
King Louis XVI
Abbé Sieyès
“…the privileged orders have shown themselves to be…an enemy of the common order.”
Robespierre
“Louis must die, that the nation may live.”
French Revolution:Committee of Public Safety
trumps constitution; Terror deemed necessaryto suppress the enemy.
The Russian Revolution
• Disastrous war• Tsar impedes organization for the war,
alienates most of the nation• February Revolution replaces Tsar with a new
Provisional Government• Task: to complete the war, and then to devise
a new constitution
Dual Power
Lenin, State and Revolution
Lenin, State and Revolution
Revolution carried out by classes—in this case, “the proletariat organized as the ruling class,” to suppress “the exploiting class, the bourgeoisie.”
Lenin, State and Revolution
“Marxism educates the vanguard of the proletariat, which is capable of assuming power and of leading the whole people to socialism…”
Trotsky on the Red Terror
The Red Terror is a weapon utilized against a class, doomed to destruction, which does not wish to perish.
American Revolution
French Revolution Bolshevik Revolution
Revolution 1776: directed against British in name of national liberation; acts of terror against British sympathizers during Revolutionary War
1789: starts with aristocratic revolt; spreads to revolt of commoners against aristocrats; spreads to revolt against King and enemies; 1793-94, turns against many revolutionaries, during the Terror
1917: breaks with the February Revolution in the name of direct rule by the Proletariat; exclusion of other parties; civil war and Red Terror; consolidation of institutions of direct rule and Red Terror over the 1920s
Constitution First constitution too weak; second constitution (1787) stabilizes authority by creating new power—but states remain
Multiple attempts to create constitution from 1790 on; constitutions trumped by emergency action against enemy, the “terror”
Party claims position above law, as motive force of revolution; constitution can be suspended by Party in interest of the revolution
Representation (who is the people? Or: What is democracy?)
Complex form of representation at federal level; tension between states and federal government
National Assembly at first; Committee of Public Safety, speaking in the name of the entire Nation
Party, speaking in the name of the Proletariat, which claims to embody the entire Nation
Monarch------------------------Army and Bureaucracy
Assembly-----------------------------Budget/Taxes
“Kommandogewalt”
“Budgetrecht”
Unified Germany
“The Proclamation of the German Empire on January 18, 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles”
The political system of the Empire
Individual states’ monarchs or assemblies
Bundesrat
Reichstag
All German men 25 years or older
Kaiser
ChancellorPrussian Minister-President
Legislation, budget, information
Army
=
Otto von Bismarck
“If it has to be revolution, then we would rather make it ourselves than suffer it.”
The political system of the Empire
Individual states’ monarchs or assemblies
Bundesrat
Reichstag
All German men 25 years or older
Kaiser
ChancellorPrussian Minister-President
Legislation, budget, information
Army
=
The Kulturkampf
German Reichstag Elections, 1871-1893