What Were The Main Features Of The Weimar Constitution

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What Were The Main Features Of The Weimar Constitution?

The Weimar Constitution gave Germany its first experience of democratic government. The constitution stated that 'all power comes from the people'. This meant that all adult Germans were able to vote at regular intervals, both for their President (the head of state) and for their representatives in the parliament (known as the Reichstag). Women, for the first time in Germany, gained the right to vote.
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In an emergency the President was given the power to rule by decree, in other words without consulting the Reichstag. In normal circumstances, however, the actual head of the government would be the Chancellor (equivalent to a Prime Minister) rather than the President.

Elections to the Reichstag were to be by a system of proportional representation. Under this system a party received the same percentage of seats in the Reichstag as it had received votes in the election. This was intended to be a more democratic system than the one used, for example, in British parliamentary ...

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