Chapter 321: Constitutionalization
Chapter 311: Constitution Making
“It’s finally done!”
“This is only the first step, it still has to be passed in the state assembly and approved by His Majesty before it can go into effect!”
“It’s just an amendment, what are we afraid of?”
……
That’s right, this is the Constitutional Commission of the New Holy Roman Empire, and all the people present are representatives sent by the governments of the various states.
As early as 1854, the Constitutional Commission was established, because of the differences between the parties are too big, dilly-dallying until now.
Now the draft constitution has finally come out, until now, the new Holy Roman Empire is still using the unification agreement signed by the states.
The draft constitution soon appeared on Franz’s desk.
Read from beginning to end, Franz brow slightly zou. This constitution is actually the result of the compromise of all parties, the biggest advantage is probably to protect the royal power.
This was the inevitable result. The members of the Constitutional Commission were all royalists, and except for the Free Cities, all the states had kings.
The ass determines the head. If the emperor’s rights are limited, can the king’s rights be guaranteed?
From the point of view of rights, the kings of the states were Franz’s best allies. Both the emperor’s rights and the king’s rights were on the same front, and both sides suffered a loss.
The other terms were similar to the actual situation in the new Holy Roman Empire.
Almost a replica of the German II Empire, the state governments had a high degree of autonomy and basically no restrictions except for the prohibition of secession, the unification of currencies, and the necessity of diplomatic consistency with the central government.
Command of the armies belonged to the Emperor and the King, and according to the Constitution: while Franz and the kings of the states had the right to command the armies of the states, the central government did not have this right.
The army was divided into two types: the central army, and the state armies. The central army was under the direct authority of the Emperor, and the governments of the states shared the cost of the army, while the state armies belonged to the King and were financed by the states themselves.
Theoretically, as long as the state governments had the money, even if they got a million armies out, it was all legal and the central government had no right to intervene, though the emperor had the right to command.
The new version of the constitution, directly cut the army and the government, state-owned army into the emperor and the king private army.
Taxation is also the same, the people pay taxes to the king and the emperor, the central government and the state governments just manage it for them.
It was a bit of an inside resemblance to the British in this respect, except that the Emperor had more power.
The top officials of the central government are appointed by the Emperor, and all top officials must have experience in local, or ministerial positions, and have achieved some political success.
The possibility of reaching heaven in one step was cut off directly from the source, or rather: the prime minister must start from the state ministry.
It is worth mentioning that the election of members of parliament has been opened up, but in a high-standard version.
Franz estimates that by that standard, no more than one percent would be eligible to vote, and even fewer would be eligible to run.
Following the example of the British, Parliament was divided into an upper and lower house, with the upper house made up of nobles and the lower house elected by the people.
To qualify for the right to vote, the following conditions had to be met: possessing the nationality of the New Holy Roman Empire and residing permanently in the empire itself, or in a colony, having reached the age of thirty, having a secondary school education or above, possessing more than ten years of experience in social work and having made certain achievements in the industry, not having any criminal record, and having a correct political ideology ……
The qualifications of the candidates are even more stringent, after meeting the above qualifications, there are also social contribution assessment, personal comprehensive ability assessment, political ideological and moral assessment ……
There is no need to doubt that, according to this standard implementation, it is estimated that the future Congress of the New Holy Roman Empire will be very harmonious.
Those who are able to kill their way out basically become old men, whether they are cursing or fighting.
There is no doubt that this election model is a heavy blow to political parties. It’s useless to be good at speeches alone, even if you are blowing up the sky, you damn well don’t even have the right to vote, and you don’t even have the qualification to vote.
Voters have a certain level of knowledge, and are the elite of the industry, have long passed the middle two stage, these people do not have much desire to change the status quo of society, it is not easy to fool them.
Even if all these conditions are met, it is still just an MP. If you want to go from being a Member of Parliament to becoming the Prime Minister, you still have to work your way up from the grassroots, and elections are not a shortcut.
These constraints were not set by Franz, who at most hinted at them, and the later ones were trumped up by the Constitutional Committee.
Thinking about it, it’s normal that the current Constitutional Council has vested interests and naturally wants to protect its own interests.
Don’t think that a civilian origin **** will expand the right to vote. The end result is often just the opposite, and these are the people who are most opposed to expanding the franchise.
People’s hearts are complicated. Before they have obtained the privileges, they are anti-privilege; when they have obtained the privileges, their butts determine their heads and they want to defend the privileges.
As elites in society, they naturally do not want more people to come in and share this right, and in the end, it becomes elite politics.
Whether elite politics was good or not, this question Franz could not answer. But as the emperor, it was in his interest.
A group of rational and tend to conservative social elites entering the circle of power is always more favorable to the development of the country than letting a group of middle-aged and mouth-breathing parties come in.
After seeing the political contributions, Franz did not hesitate to put a fork in it, and made a note: any act of political contributions is considered a bribe, and will be investigated and dealt with severely in accordance with the relevant regulations.
After thinking for a while, he added a note: the media, enterprises, and individuals are prohibited from making relevant political propaganda, and violators will be punished for the crime of manipulating political elections.
As for not being able to propagandize, the question of how voters should vote was none of Franz’s business. Guess it’s probably, barely, okay to list your bio!
Anyway, we’re all the same, fair and square doesn’t take advantage of anyone.
Better than letting the power of capital intervene and Congress be reduced to slaves under the money of the capitalists.
Since it was constitutional, naturally there were provisions to limit the emperor’s rights. For example: to comply with the Constitution, clearly defined the percentage of withdrawal of the royal annuity and so on.
These are pretty much it, don’t expect a bunch of constitutional commissions appointed by the emperor, the king, can really go to make a constitution to limit the power of the emperor.
All these provisions were tacitly approved by Franz. At most, they strengthened the power of the cabinet, but the basis of the cabinet’s power came from the emperor, and was nothing more than a backstabber.
It is worth mentioning the law of succession to the throne, Franz made changes, if the first heir is unable to assume the responsibility of the emperor because of personal physical and mental reasons, the throne will be directly inherited by the second successor.
There is no way, after experiencing the reign of Ferdinand I, almost overturned, the Habsburg royal family were scared, afraid to do it again. After all, not every time will be so lucky, can turn the danger into a success.
If it were not for the Habsburg dynasty loyalists, in the era of Ferdinand Austria will become a constitutional monarchy, it is not the turn of Franz himself to make the constitution.
After checking it a few times and finding nothing wrong with it, Franz passed on his opinion. In time someone would naturally find a reason to carry out his will.
This was only the draft, and there was still a long time to pull the strings behind it. The central government and the state governments still had to engage in political games and fight for their respective rights.
The constitution, to put it bluntly, is just a big framework, and when it comes to specific provisions, it depends on the outcome of the political game between the parties.
(End of chapter)