CBSE Class 9 Answered

The Weimar Constitution suffered from certain inherent defects which made it susceptible to a variety of political pressures. Since it was born out of the experience of the First World War, the political scheme of the Weimar Constitution was much more federal in character and hence often resulted in a succession of technical and political crises. The Constitution was based on the principle of 'proportional representation'. This made it very difficult for any one party to secure majority in the elections and hence several coalitions shared power in post-war Germany. This naturally meant a lot of friction in the decision making process and policies were often discontinued or not properly implemented by the government. Also, Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution gave the President the power to declare emergency, suspend civil rights and rule by decree. It was used more than liberally and caused a lot of problems too, since the people gradually began to lose faith in the government.