This fact is a reality; it certainly does not recommend our cause to the liberal parties abroad, and, at home, it rankles our people and many of our deputies more than just a little. One would always be thoroughly mistaken, however, in perceiving this fact, just like that, solely as the expression of an absolutism dominating our system. Today, the royal prerogative is stronger in Germany than in England; it maintains a position comparable in some ways to that of the Tudors. But surely it is not the strength of the royal prerogative alone that prevents the development of parliamentary government in our country. For the most part, the causes lie within ourselves, and I think that this circumstance is favorable with respect to our future, since it means that we hold within us not only the evil but also the remedy. In England, one would not understand an opposition that fought a ministry without intending to take its place, an opposition that contested the actions of government without being prepared to assume responsibility for better administration. Parliamentary government means government of the respective majority of the people’s representation: In order for it to exist, it is necessary that the same kind of majority exists in parliament and that it is capable of forming a ministry from its midst. Yet both prerequisites have been lacking in Germany thus far, and I believe that they have little prospect of emerging in Germany in the near future. The German Reichstag and the Prussian Chamber of Deputies are divided into six to eight parliamentary caucuses. Among them, no more than two to three have ever managed to form coalitions; even these coalitions did not always possess the majority, and fewer still formed any united and lasting majority. As long as this constellation remains in place, it alone will suffice to make a parliamentary ministry impossible. If the chamber consists of six minorities fighting among themselves, it will be impossible to form a majority ministry. Added to this is the fact that parliamentary institutions have existed in Prussia for only 20 years and in South Germany for only 50. Experience has shown us that this is too short a period to serve the population as an adequate lesson in the parliamentary form of government. Even today, most voters regard controlling and criticizing the government as the most important duty of the deputy; they do not see the truest guarantee of their liberty in the best management of governmental power but rather in its greatest possible restriction. Any candidate who let on that he had the desire or the ability to become a minister would thus lose his popularity with numerous constituents right away.
[ . . . ]
Here, amidst all the parliamentary parties, the formation of a school of practical statesmen with the capacity to govern a great empire is made impossible. If the next election to the German Reichstag were to result in a solid liberal majority (which I do not believe will happen), and if the King subsequently commissioned the leaders of that majority with the selection of his ministers, then they would recommend technical experts from their own ranks for the departments of the interior, education, and justice. But nothing is more certain than the fact that they would recommended the retention of the current office holders* in the ministries of foreign affairs, war, and finance, not merely because these men have excellent records to show, but also because the majority would not have any candidates for these offices.
* Otto von Bismarck, Albrecht von Roon, and Otto Camphausen, respectively.
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