Bismarck political dominance successful?
Politically, Bismarck largely managed to maintain his dominance. Bismarck’s dominance was rooted in the German constitution which gave Prussian conservatives dominance in the executive and the Bundesrat.
Bismarck’s steel and rye alliance united landowners and industrialists politically and, and this alliance solidified conservative dominance, of which Bismarck was viewed as a champion. Bismarck’s protectionist policies also further united industrialists and landowners, and also united the North and the South, upon whose support Bismarck was able to rely in the Bundesrat.
Politically, Bismarck’s anti socialist measures were very significant in the course of his Chancellorship. The 1878 anti-socialist measures, which were introduced in order to halt the perceived threat of the rise of socialism involved the outlawing of socialist organizations, including trade unions, and the banning of socialist publications, were largely unsuccessful, partly due to the fact that socialists were not prevented from running for office. The SPD gained twice as many votes in 1887 as in 1878, and State Socialism did not do much better; although measures such as the 1883 Sickness Insurance Act were progressive, and indeed the first of their kind in Europe, they did not go far enough as to introduce factory working condition legislation, and failed to fulfil their aim, which was to win over the support of the working class, shown by the fact that by 1890 the SPD had amassed 35 Reichstag seats. However, it is arguable that the anti-socialist laws managed to have the effect of preventing the SPD from adopting an extreme revolutionary position, and in this sense helped the stability of the Reich, although ultimately they defied Bismarck’s political dominance.
