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The Center Party Compete With The Social Democratic Party In Imperial Germany

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The Center Party was further inclined to get behind supporting democratic reforms, in order to compete with the Social Democratic Party. The Social Democratic Party was the main left wing political party in Imperial Germany, which tended to advocate for progressive, socialist, and democratic policies. By the 1910’s, the Social Democratic Party was competing with the Center Party for the votes of working class Catholics. The Social Democratic Party’s more explicit advocacy for democratic reforms, along with support for increased benefits for workers, helped to draw voters away from the Center Party. In the 1912 elections (the last elections which were held before the onset of World War I), the Social Democratic Party gained victories in the heavily Catholic areas of Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Munich. …show more content…

These developments helped to spur debates within the Center Party; with one element advocating the party take a stronger effort in promoting democratic and pro-labor reforms, in order to remain competitive for attracting working class votes, and a more cautious element which was worried that such reforms could strengthen the Social Democrats. Attempts were made by Catholic labor groups and part of the Center Party to replace the three-class election system in the Prussian parliament (which awarded the wealthiest third class of voters 85% of representatives) with a system of equal suffrage elections. But, politicians from the Conservative, National Liberal, and the more cautious part of the Center Party, stopped this effort. Even though prewar efforts at democratic reform were unsuccessful, they still demonstrated the growing demand for the Center Party to get more firmly behind democratic reforms in order to maintain its

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