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Federalism In East Germany

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As a term federalism is used to describe a government system in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central authority and political units, for instance states. It is based upon democratic rules. Furthermore, “federalism, in reconciling a regional and a national sense of belonging in a non-hierarchical order, is predicated on the assumption of plurality of identities, and thus defies any attempt to equate it with a single political concept or ideology’’ (Umbach, 2002: 5). German Federalism is not an abstract concept, because it does not have universal definition. The meaning of federalism has altered progressively over many centuries. ‘Federalism did, however play an important role in reconstructing democracy after …show more content…

What actually caused the harsh economic deterioration after 1990? In contrast to the West Germany economic , in the former GDR the situation was described as a ‘veiled economic collapse and government bankruptcy”. While the economy of the FRG experienced boom, the situation in the East Germany differed totally. Much more people moved to West Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 8 years after the events of the 1990 the number of people that leaved former GDR was more than 800,000. This caused decrease in a workforce, in a working age and increase in the unemployment. In July 1990 the chancellor Helmut Kohl introduced the monetary union and the currency in East Germany was converted at a rate of 1:1 to Deutschmark that caused new crises in this part of the country. Although the former GDR adopted institutional infrastructure long established in the West Germany and the community benefited from the creditworthiness of the West Germany, the former GDR needed longer time and much more investments in order to gain on the West. The reasons for the structural deficit of the East German economy were : “the command economy, capital stock was obsolete, low division of labour and that the banks, insurance companies and retail sectors were underdeveloped.” (Gromling,2008: 7). The economic deficit of the East Germany was a sign that immediate changes needed to be implemented if Germany wanted to remain an economic leader in Europe. As a part of monetary union most financial liabilities and assets were converted at a rate of 2 Eastmarks to 1 Deutschmarks. Moreover, recurrent payment( e.g. rents and wages) were converted

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Edwards and Wattenberg define Federalism as, “a way of organizing a nation so that two or more levels of government share formal authority over the same area and people. (Edwards and Wattenburg,70)” When the United States first started to form a central government their objective was to never allow for a dominating power to take over the country again. To do so they created a division of power and made it possible for states and more so the “people” the right to have more of an impact on government. Or so were their intended thoughts when creating the constitution and the branches. In doing so their focus constrained national government but left a loose string as to what the states and their constitutions could do.

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According to Document 2 “In the period following the end of World War 1, Germany experianced a disastrous perioid of inflation. The German governemnts method of financing the war by borrowing heavily and printing large quantities of unbacked currency began th inflationary spiral. This lead to political violence.” The german economy was in ruins at the time, one us dollar was equivilant to 4,200,000,000,000 German marks at one point. This helped Hitler Rise to power because the people felt that their economy was very very weak because of the government, and they wanted a new upgraded government.

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This resulted out of control inflation where paper money downgrade the value of its worth. Failed to pay close attention and monitor the spending resulted in a semi depression.

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In other words, Federalism is power not held by the people being split into two; that is the powers of the central and state governments. Some of the powers given to the central government were the ability to regulate trade, conduct foreign relations, declare war and to print and coin money which created the national currency (Document A). Meanwhile, some powers given to the state were ones such as the ability to hold elections, establish schools and pass marriage and divorce laws (Document A). This compound government instills a double-security for the people within the nation because this method works so that the central and state governments could check each other’s power while still being able to independently control itself. Federalism protects from tyranny by making sure that power isn’t only vested by the government, but also by the people of

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Inflation eventually peaked at a rate of over 305 percent in 1921, drastically reducing the value of the German currency and leading to a severe economic crisis. Due to these high expenses, Germany experienced inflation of almost 100,000,000%, making it necessary to employ wheel barrels of Marks in order to purchase bread (Document 6 and 7). At the height of the crisis in 1923 German currency had become completely worthless, making it difficult for the country to pay its debts. One U.S. Dollar was worth 4 trillion German marks (Document 6).

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How does the constitution guard against tyranny? In 1787 55 individuals met in Philadelphia to discuss a problem, they were mostly male,white,and wealthy all from the east but, some of the state’s didn’t showed up until july beside’s rhode island it didn’t show up at all. Anyways The Articles of Confederation were not working it had no court system, and not even a chief executive. So after a long debate, they made a decision, the decision was to dump the Articles of Confederation and make the Constitution. but, Was it possible to make a new era of government that was strong and tyranny free?

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German inflation occurred and their economy collapsed. Throughout 2 and 6 the ideals of debt for Germany are expressed. In document 2, John Maynard Keynes shares his work called The Economic Consequences of Peace. It basically discusses the severity of the economic depression in Germany. It also talks about how it could lead to starvation.

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A constitutional convention was held in May of 1787, when 55 delegates from 12 out of the 13 states met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In James Madison’s words, a tyrant is “a government with an absolute ruler like a king, or a dictator.” King George III was known as a tyrant. King George III was an unfit ruler who led the colonists to break away from Great Britain because of reasons including (but are not limited to) unruly taxes, lowering prices for Britain’s tea only, and putting soldiers at the Appalachian Mountains unnecessarily. After a failed attempt at government, a constitution needed to be created.

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Germany has been struggling a lot after WWI. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party started blaming and

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In May of 1787, 55 delegates came to Philadelphia to have a Constitutional Convention. They had this meeting so they could make the U.S. Constitution. They wanted to make one because the articles of the Confederation were not working. They wanted to make a Constitution that would benefit the U.S. The Constitution also guarded against tyranny in 4 different ways, Federalism, Separation of powers, checks and balances and big State little State, compromise.

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Federalism breaks apart the powers given to the central (Federal) government and those powers given to the states. As seen in document A1, a source from James Madison from Federalist Paper #51, 1788; Madison states, “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments.” This idea from Madison is the idea of the division of power between the Federal Government and State Governments. Federalism provides a “Double security,” that protects the rights of the citizens of the United States of America. As the governments will be controlled by itself, the separate governments will also control each other.

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Federalism is a system in which the power is shared between the national and regional government, following democratic rules. a. Dual Federalism: The first period of federalism was from 1789 to 1937, called dual federalism. In this stage, there was equality between the national and state government, but the functions of each of them were fundamentally separated; they rarely operate together.

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The United States has undergone a major shift in federalism since the founding in 1789. Dual federalism was the norm from 1789 until the 1930’s. Under this system of federalism the areas of responsibilities that the National government and State government had were demarcated very distinctly. Most areas in citizen’s everyday lives were in fact regulated by the state and local governments. While the national government had responsibilities that were mostly concern with national commerce.

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For example, Germany was at the lowest at the start of the 1920’s. Due to Germany losing in World War I (1914-1918), the German nation had to pay for War Reparations to the victors of the war. In the years after, Germany faced a crisis of inflation and hyperinflation under the Weimar Republic, which in turn led the German people to live in poverty. As poverty spread throughout Germany, middle-class Germans and the working class began to see their monthly wages become worthless and entire savings vanishing. By 1924 and 1929, the Great Depression increased Germany’s unemployment rate by the millions overnight similar to the United States at the time.

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Notably, the Germans could not pay back the Entente with their steadily depreciating currency as the reparation payments “were fixed in real Goldmarks.” Effectively bankrupt at its inception, these concessions to the Entente began

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