ABSTRACT
The Constitution of the Second Reich (1871) gave Germany universal suffrage and an elected Reichstag, or lower chamber. Since the new state was a conglomeration of several different interests-industrial and agrarian, Protestant and Catholic-it was to be expected that such a major advance would favour the growth of political parties. From the beginning of his Chancellorship, however, Bismarck made every effort to prevent the evolution of parliamentary sovereignty on the British model, with accountability of the executive to the legislature. Above all, he disliked the prospect of party politics, and had no intention of attaching himself permanently to any single faction. On the contrary, he avoided any long-term commitments so that he could preserve maximum freedom to manoeuvre between the various party leaders. He once described his objective as ‘an understanding with the majority of the deputies that will not at the same time prejudice the future authority and governmental powers of the Crown or endanger the proficiency of the army’.1
