320 likes | 445 Views
Revolution, Constitutionalism, and Democracy. The German Weimar Republic Peter Caldwell [“Carl”] Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA. The Revolutionary United States.
E N D
Revolution, Constitutionalism, and Democracy The German Weimar Republic Peter Caldwell [“Carl”] Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA
"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…” "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...":
AbbéSieyès “The Third Estate is the Nation.”
AbbéSieyès “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.”
AbbéSieyès “…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
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.
“Kommandogewalt” Monarch------------------------Army and Bureaucracy “Budgetrecht” Assembly-----------------------------Budget/Taxes
“The Proclamation of the German Empire on January 18, 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles”
The political system of the Empire Reichstag = Prussian Minister-President Chancellor Legislation, budget, information Kaiser Bundesrat Army All German men 25 years or older Individual states’ monarchs or assemblies
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 Reichstag = Prussian Minister-President Chancellor Legislation, budget, information Kaiser Bundesrat Army All German men 25 years or older Individual states’ monarchs or assemblies