<![CDATA[Context of the Rise of the Third Reich]]>Hi, as a fairly busy researcher, I still want to understand to whatever degree possible the context of the rise of the Third Reich and fascism in Germany. What factors enabled or failed to frustrate this rise in terms of the structure of the German government? For example, leading up to the rise, what was the parliamentary structure? How, if at all, was power separated between branches of government? What form of voting system was used—was it a proportional representation system? What do scholars speculate about in terms of what changes to the structure of government might have checked, frustrated or disabled the rise of fascism there?

Some answers to these are obvious, but I wanted to ask these questions openly to spur a conversation about the roles of these factors in the failure to keep fascism in check. For example, one speculation is that PR was a factor, leading to an unstable government as parties arose, formed and broke coalitions, and dissolved. This led to a weak legislative branch of government. With this in mind, how can we design or provide counterbalances to systems of proportional representation that don’t suffer from the same vulnerability to fragmentation and instability?

Another aspect was the capability of the executive to seize essentially unilateral control in “emergency” events.

If anybody has insight about this, I think this is an important discussion to have.

]]>http://www.votingtheory.org/forum/topic/556/context-of-the-rise-of-the-third-reichRSS for NodeSun, 06 Sep 2026 20:48:32 GMTMon, 10 Mar 2025 15:36:46 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Context of the Rise of the Third Reich on Thu, 13 Mar 2025 23:30:38 GMT]]>@matija yeah, it seems that there were many factors that converged. I guess we never know what might have been or might be especially instrumental per se in the rise of anti-democratic regimes. As we’re seeing now in the USA, even supposedly “stable” vote-for-one systems are vulnerable to the most basic kind of fragmentation, namely splitting in half.

I’m not sure how stable these systems are then, considering the bipolar oscillations of government. The same gridlocks that make legislature impotent appear in a more blatant form. To me, that means vote-for-one is even less desirable than previously imagined, since even its claim to purported stability is moot.

]]>http://www.votingtheory.org/forum/post/4002http://www.votingtheory.org/forum/post/4002Thu, 13 Mar 2025 23:30:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Context of the Rise of the Third Reich on Tue, 11 Mar 2025 07:21:53 GMT]]>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1925_German_presidential_election

]]>http://www.votingtheory.org/forum/post/3992http://www.votingtheory.org/forum/post/3992Tue, 11 Mar 2025 07:21:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Context of the Rise of the Third Reich on Tue, 11 Mar 2025 04:19:56 GMT]]>@matija is that really how they elected the president? How did they vote?

]]>http://www.votingtheory.org/forum/post/3991http://www.votingtheory.org/forum/post/3991Tue, 11 Mar 2025 04:19:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Context of the Rise of the Third Reich on Mon, 10 Mar 2025 17:43:14 GMT]]>Two-round presidential election with 3 candidates in the second round is a factor I can think of.

]]>http://www.votingtheory.org/forum/post/3990http://www.votingtheory.org/forum/post/3990Mon, 10 Mar 2025 17:43:14 GMT