An entrenched autocracy. How far do you agree with this judgement of Imperial Germany by 1914?

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"An entrenched autocracy." How far do you agree with this judgement of Imperial Germany by 1914?

To have an 'entrenched autocracy' is to have an autocracy (a system of government which allows one person to have absolute rule and power) which is unmoveably deep-set; one which will, for all intents and purposes, never be changed. There are both for and against factors which argue that Wilhelmine Germany was so, including the power that the Kaiser had over the Reichstag and his chancellors, the Kaiser's own personality and beliefs, the challenges to the Kaiser's rule and the rise of 'extremist' parties such as the Social Democrats. Whilst it cannot be denied that the Kaiser had absolute power and say over Germany, there was always stumbling points, blockades, which stopped him from exercising the 'self-rule' which he had always desired.

Because of the constitution which Bismarck, the previous chancellor, had passed, the Kaiser could exercise complete, de jure rule. The Kaiser had the power to hire and fire any member of his 'inner circle' which he so chose and that extended to the chancellor; in a 27 year period he had gone through four of them. Constitutionally, the work of