History

unw i l l i ngness to accep t the Weim er Repub l i c. T her ef or e because the T r eat y was un just , i t d i d not have to be com p l i ed w i th , and nei ther d i d the Weim ar Repub l i c because i t was al so ?i n f ected .? T he T r eat y has been cal l ed the i n i t i al st r i ke agai n st the Weim ar Repub l i c f r om wh i ch i t wou l d never en t i r el y r ecover because i t caused the weakness of successi ve Germ an gover nm en t s. U l t im atel y, the T r eat y added to the destab i l i sat i on of a ser i es of Germ an gover nm en t s bu t d i d not cause the weakness of those gover nm en t s. T hat weakness was caused by a num ber of i ssues wh i ch wer e noth i ng to do w i th the T r eat y. Fi r st , the con st i tu t i on of the Weim ar Repub l i c had adop ted a system of p r opor t i onal r ep r esen tat i on , m ak i ng i t l i kel y that a w i de r ange of po l i t i cal par t i es wou l d w i n seat s i n any el ect i on (n i ne par t i es won seat s i n the f i r st el ect i on i n 1919). T h i s m ean t that usual l y a gover nm en t cou l d on l y be f orm ed th r ough a coal i t i on of sever al par t i es, and coal i t i on s of ten f ai l ed . Second l y,

the of ten r ep r esen ted par t i cu l ar cl asses, r el i gi ous per suasi on s or r egi on s and th i s m ade i t m or e d i f f i cu l t f or them to wor k together . T h i r d l y, the dem ocr at i c f r am ewor k of the Weim ar Repub l i c was new and the po l i t i cal par t i es i n i t i al l y f ound i t har d to under stand i t af ter the r u l e of the Kai ser . As H en i g says, ?the Weim ar po l i t i cal system was . . . gr avel y hand i capped f r om the ou t set by the r ange and dep th of soci al and econom i c d i v i si on s wh i ch ex i sted i n Germ any.?5 T he ar gum en t that the T r eat y d i d cause that weakness was l ar gel y i nven ted by r i gh t -w i ng ex t r em i st s who wan ted to just i f y act i ng ou t si de the con st i tu t i on of the Weim ar Repub l i c because they though t they wou l d never get i n to gover nm en t i n l egal ways. T he r equ i r em en t i n the T r eat y that Germ any pay r epar at i on s was not the i n i t i al cause of i n f l at i on i n Germ any i n the per i od 1919- 1923. I t d i d add to that i n f l at i on , bu t on l y because of the po l i ci es of Germ an po l i t i cal par t i es

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