ABSTRACT

Antiparliamentarism of the right directly criticized democratic institutions that had their modern origin in revolution and that enjoyed the support of both liberal democrats and social democrats. The necessity of establishing an authoritarian state, unconditioned by popular consultations and social experiments, became the dominant theme for many French intellectuals who considered themselves liberals. The authoritarian state—whether based on the model of Louis Napoleon or that of Otto von Bismarck—was not the only response to the instability caused by revolutionary movements. The legislature, consisting of a Reichstag elected by universal suffrage and a Bundesrat representing the German states, could not limit Bismarck's authority through votes of confidence. Bismarck manipulated constitutional mechanisms to prevent the popularly elected Reichstag from exercising governmental action while combining internal authoritarianism and an expansionist foreign policy to thwart the political and social forces challenging his authority. Gaetano Mosca devoted greater attention to analyzing the political class in his 1896 work, The Ruling Class.