The laws of the Weimar Republic were very democratic. Men and women from the age of 20 were able to vote whereas in Britain this was 21 for men and 30 for women.
Power was ‘shared’ and ‘decentralised’ - this is called having ‘checks and balances’.
Relying on a coalition government can be argued to be democratic as it forces the government to consider rival views and prevents unfavourable policies being forced through.
Proportional representation meant the number of votes they got resulted in the equivalent number of seats. This means a fair representation is made in the Reichstag.(Democracy is all about representation)
The was an independent judiciary (courts) - not influenced by the politicians.
Article 48 of the constitution gave the president incredible power to rule without parliament. This opened up the constitution for possible dictatorships to form and made it less democratic.
Proportional representation meant the number of seats depended on the number of votes gained. This produced a large number of parties and made it difficult for a majority to be won making any parties manifesto aims difficult to achieve with bipartisan support.
Many judges and civil servants did not want the Weimar constitution as they disagreed with its liberal political views.
The army was against the Weimar constitution as they wanted the Kaiser to return and reinstate their status.
There was great resistance to the constitution from the left as well as the right. The left wanted a more radical constitution- the right a more ‘centralised’ one.
