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Question: Can't understand those paragaphs !?
Can someone explain it with " SIMPLE" Language cause I don't have a clue!.
It's about the Weimar Republic Constitution
* Proportional representation - instead of voting for an MP, like we do in Britain, Weimar Germans voted for a party!. Each party was then allocated seats in the Reichstag exactly reflecting (proportional' to) the number of people who had voted for it!. This sounds fair, but in practice it was a disaster it resulted in dozens of tiny parties, with no party strong enough to get a majority, and, therefore, no government to get its laws passed in the Reichstag!. This was a major weakness of the Republic!.
* Article 48 - this said that, in an emergency, the president did not need the agreement of the Reichstag, but could issue decrees!. The problem with this was that it did not say what an emergency was, and in the end, it turned out to be a back door that Hitler used to take power legally!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
OK, it works best as an example!.
Say you have 100 seats in the legislature!. The top party gets 40 percent of the vote, so they get 40 seats!. The second place gets 35 percent, so they get 35 seats!.
But you might have a party with 1 or 2 percent (they get 1 or 2 seats)!. If there are a huge number of parties, and they all get a small section the vote, you wind up with nobody in charge!. No party would have enough people to make a majority and run the government!.
Article 48 meant that Hitler could simply make up laws, without getting the approval of the legislature!. He used it to gain complete control of Germany!. The Reichstag became an empty shell that just rubber-stamped whatever Hitler wanted to happen!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
In the US ( and as, I believe in Britain) the Congress/Parliament is divided up into districts!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.!.in the US it's 452 split amongst the states!. In each district any number of candidates can run and it's winner take all!.!.!.!.so lets say you have the Republicans, the Democrats the Skinheads the Communists, the Libertarians and the Greens!.
The Republicans and the Democrats, being the far larger of the two parties will win all the elections between them, and you'll get a Congress of, say, 252 Dem's ad 200 Republicans!.
The 4 smaller parties don't win any election and don't get any seats!.
Remember its winner take all!.!.!.!.!.!.in one district A Dem could get 100,000 votes, a Republican 95,000 votes a Green 90,000 a Skinhead 40,000 a Libertarian 35,000 and a Communist 25,000!. for total vote cast of 385,000 only the Dem goes to Congress!.
Lets say in the hypothetical example I gave above where the Dem's win 252 seats nationwide the breakdown in each district was as above!.!.
in proportional representation the Dem's would only have won 100,000/385!.000 seats, the Repub 95,000/385,000 seats Skinheads 40,000/100,000!.!.!.!.or now instead of 252 seats for the Democrats, they only get 84; the Repubs get 95/385 x 252 or 68,
all the way down to the Communists who only got 25,000/300,000 percent of the vote !.!.!.!.!.8 percent!.!.!.!.!.!.who under the winner take all system get no seats and under proportional get 20 seats!
It's even worse, for, say, the Refer Madness Party might get only 3,850 votes out of 385,000 but they would still be entitled to a seat!.
So instead of a clear Democratic majority to push through their plans, they have to unite with two or more other parties to get majority and the whole policy's get muddled!.!.!.!.can you see Dems, Skinheads and Communists agreeing on anything!!?
Article 48 says in an emergency the president can issues decrees!.!.!.!.!.!.!.it is widely suspected that Hitler engineered the burning of the Reichstag building!. He then declared an emergency and said as the first thing in this emergency we are going to suspend elections!. He did and there wasnt another election in Germany till 15 years had passed and 30,000,000 were dead!.Www@QuestionHome@Com