Revolution, Constitutionalism, and Democracy

Revolution, Constitutionalism, and DemocracyThe German Weimar Republic

Peter Caldwell [Carl]Rice University, Houston, Texas, USAThe Revolutionary United States

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...":

"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

We the People of the United States of AmericaRepresentation in the U.S. Constitution

Abb Sieys, What Is the Third Estate?

Abb Sieys

The Third Estate is the Nation.Abb Sieys

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.King Louis XVI

Abb Sieys

the privileged orders have shown themselves to bean enemy of the common order.RobespierreLouis must die, that the nation may live.

French Revolution:Committee of Public Safety trumps constitution; Terror deemed necessaryto suppress the enemy.The Russian RevolutionDisastrous warTsar impedes organization for the war, alienates most of the nationFebruary Revolution replaces Tsar with a new Provisional GovernmentTask: to complete the war, and then to devise a new constitution

Dual PowerLenin, State and Revolution

Lenin, State and Revolution

Revolution carried out by classesin 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 socialismTrotsky on the Red TerrorThe Red Terror is a weapon utilized against a class, doomed to destruction, which does not wish to perish.

American RevolutionFrench RevolutionBolshevik RevolutionRevolution1776: directed against British in name of national liberation; acts of terror against British sympathizers during Revolutionary War1789: starts with aristocratic revolt; spreads to revolt of commoners against aristocrats; spreads to revolt against King and enemies; 1793-94, turns against many revolutionaries, during the Terror1917: breaks with the February Revolution in the name of direct rule by the Proletariat; exclusion of other parties; civil war and Red Terror; consolidation of institutions of direct rule and Red Terror over the 1920sConstitutionFirst constitution too weak; second constitution (1787) stabilizes authority by creating new powerbut states remainMultiple attempts to create constitution from 1790 on; constitutions trumped by emergency action against enemy, the terrorParty claims position above law, as motive force of revolution; constitution can be suspended by Party in interest of the revolutionRepresentation (who is the people? Or: What is democracy?)Complex form of representation at federal level; tension between states and federal governmentNational Assembly at first; Committee of Public Safety, speaking in the name of the entire NationParty, speaking in the name of the Proletariat, which claims to embody the entire Nation

24Monarch------------------------Army and BureaucracyAssembly-----------------------------Budget/TaxesKommandogewaltBudgetrecht25Unified Germany

26The Proclamation of the German Empire on January 18, 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles

27The political system of the EmpireIndividual states monarchs or assembliesBundesratReichstagAll German men 25 years or olderKaiserChancellorPrussian Minister-PresidentLegislation, budget, informationArmy=28Otto von Bismarck

If it has to be revolution, then we would rather make it ourselves than suffer it.29The political system of the EmpireIndividual states monarchs or assembliesBundesratReichstagAll German men 25 years or olderKaiserChancellorPrussian Minister-PresidentLegislation, budget, informationArmy=30The Kulturkampf

German Reichstag Elections, 1871-1893

32Need to revise next time: Berghahns statistics odd.