Political Parties in Transition: The German Army Bill of 1892-1893.

摘要

Introduced into the Reichstag at a time of acute economic crisis, this bill proposed an unprecedented increase in the peacetime strength. The resulting deliberations led to widespread unrest and agricultural agitation, turbulent intra-party disputes, the dissolution of the Reichstag, and national elections. Military considerations were soon eclipsed by more far-reaching economic, political, social, and religious ones. These arose in response to Germany's changing economic and political character and to Chancellor Caprivi'a 'new course' policies. The government's policy of conciliation, aimed in part at giving equal consideraton to agricultural and industrial interests, found little support. On the right, new approaches were sought to generate mass appeal and to revitalize declining political power; the objective was to retard, or even reverse, modernization and mechanization. On the left, approaches were sought to accelerate such advancement and to derive maximum political power from it. In many respects, the army bill struggle was a search for such approaches.