German parliamentary government

By the late nineteenth century, Germany had a Reichstag (parliament) that was elected by all adult men, which gave the appearance of democratic government.
However, real political power remained with the Kaiser, who appointed the Chancellor and could dismiss the Reichstag whenever he wished.
The Chancellor was responsible only to the Kaiser, not to parliament, which limited the Reichstag’s ability to influence government policy.
As political parties such as the Social Democratic Party (SDP) gained more seats, pressure increased for greater parliamentary control. This created tension between the growing demand for democracy and the Kaiser’s desire to retain authority.

	Kaiser	Chancellor	Reichstag
Powers	Appointed and dismissed the Chancellor	Appointed by the Kaiser	Elected by male voters
	Could dissolve the Reichstag	Led the government and cabinet	Debated and passed laws
	Influenced foreign and domestic policy	Proposed and managed policy	Approved the national budget
	Had the authority to declare war	Could be dismissed at any time by the Kaiser	Could be dissolved at any time by the Kaiser
	Could influence policy through royal decree or personal intervention	Could not pass laws without Reichstag approval	Very limited control over Chancelor (only blocking legislation)
	Controlled the army and navy	Reliant on bureaucracy to implement policy	No control over the military
Limitations	Could be limited by public opinion and political pressure	Frequent replacements led to instability and lack of trust	Had no input on who was chosen as Chancellor

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