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Submitted by mhartmann1 on December 20, 2007
Category: History Other
Words: 1461 | Pages: 6
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Democracy to Tyrants to Democracy: The Roads of Germany and Italy
Over the centuries there have been many different forms and experimentations of carrying out the “social contact” in the form of governments. Governments can take several different forms ranging from pure Communism on one end to an absolute tyrant on the other. During the past two centuries the nations of Germany and Italy have for better or for worse experienced several intense governmental switches which have led to the creation of the states that we see today.
Germany as we know it first formed together with the unification of the German states in 1871 by Otto von Bismarck. Under Bismarck Germany was forged into a republic with such democratic ideals such as universal male suffrage, and division of state powers between an elected legislative (Bundestat) and an executive branch (Chancellery). Although the new German Republic did indeed have some flaws compared to modern democracies, but considering the near feudal system that existed before the creation of the republic this was revolutionary change. However many argued that the new “republic” was just a dictatorship hidden behind the guise of democracy, “Bismarck\'s intention was to create a constitutional facade which would mask the continuation of authoritarian policies. In the process, he created a system with a serious flaw” Once again though compared to the loose federation of feudal states, the ideas of suffrage, and social welfare programs was a drastic improvement and in fact several of the welfare programs in the Second Reich preceded those similar programs in the United States . One of the most highly criticized factors of the Second Republic is that this was the government that allowed the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Although this statement is somewhat true, there were several other more important factors that led to the rise of the Nazi Party (i.e. issues of war reparations, Treaty of Versailles).
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