Weimar And Nazi Germany

• All men and women over twenty-one could vote (‘universal suffrage’
• Civil liberties and freedom of speech were guaranteed
• There was a system of checks and balances which prevented any individual from holding too much power (power was shared between the President, the Chancellor, the Reichstag, and the Reichsrat)
• The system of proportional representation gave a voice to a wide range of different views and ensured different parties had to work together
• Article 48 gave the President powers to rule by emergency decree and act swiftly in a crisis