13 Sep

This week I think I would like to say a little bit about the emergence of mass politics and the resurgence of desire for democracy among the majority of Germans, and of course abroad as well at the time. There has always been debate about if democracy is truly the best method of governance. This is a worthy debate. It has been said that the majority should have the final say, regardless of what they personally have invested in their government. This became a big desire for Germans, and they were optimistic that they were beginning to taste what it was like to have a constitutional system as well as being able to choose who would represent them in their government, not just by due aristocratic right. At the same time, the traditionally aristocratic ruling class was very anxious of the system as they saw the weak parts of the system; namely, the fact that the voting pool is essentially the mob. History teaches us that "mob rule" very often is focused chaos and used for extreme measures. The traditional ruling class was worried that any common Joe could run for an office and capture an election by recognition and not particularly merit. This is the fundamental danger democracy and mass politics inevitably brings to the table. However, it was very interesting how the new constitutional state in Germany was able to withstand the two opposing forces and basically keep society on an even keel and proves the risiliency of the system, especially in the rapidly developing industrial economy as well as in collapse as was seen in the mid 1870's as Germany was poised to be the industial powerhouse in Europe.