The Constitution begins with making the Reich a state as unitary as possible without completely suppressing every trace of the federal régime. But there are strong centrifugal tendencies. In Prussia there are several provinces that demand to be formed into distinct states. Throughout the Reich there are several states that demand the return to a purely federal régime, if not actually the complete separation from the German Reich. Will these tendencies be strong enough to bring about a relaxation of the unitary bond, if not actually the disintegration of the Reich? We have already pointed out the difference, for example, separating Catholic, peasant and conservative Bavaria from Protestant, industrial and socialist Prussia. The States were able to endure without much difficulty the hegemony of a victorious, powerful, prosperous Prussia, a hegemony by which they profited. But the same States resent the thought that a Prussia, which they hold responsible for the defeat and which they now see much weakened, should want to keep them still under its yoke and to attempt, under the pretext of unity, to absorb the Reich. They feel this all the more strongly since the future is dark. Prussia has been dangerously stricken and it may appear more advantageous not to tie up too intimately their own interests with those of such a state.
Once more Prussia holds the fate of Germany in its hands. If, renouncing the attitude which it has maintained since the Revolution, Prussia permits a transformation of some of its provinces into states, or if it accords them an autonomy so great that they will be in effect assimilated into states, then the federalist or separatist tendencies will probably lose much of their strength, and the unitarism desired by the Constitution will be able to maintain itself and even to develop. But if Prussia, relying on its strength and prestige, diminished though they be, insists on keeping the other German states, willing or not, in a Reich dominated by it, then it may be that the federalist or separatist tendencies will prevail.
The political institutions of Germany are as strongly impregnated with the _democratic idea_ as possible. The majority is sovereign. But there are minorities, to the right and to the left, that aspire to dictatorship. It seems little likely that another attempt like that of Kapp and Lüttwitz will succeed any better than the last attempt--at least unless a sudden and complete change in the political orientation of the people takes place. On the other side, the Independents, for whom even in Berlin a _coup d’état_ may be perhaps easy enough, know that they would have against them the great majority of the German people, and their leaders openly declare that their hour has not yet come. If in the domain of democratic doctrine a change seems likely to come, it is probable that it will appear in the form of a right expressly accorded to economic associations or, in a still more general manner, to producers, to exercise a special and direct influence on the government. If the Provisional Economic Council succeeds, it is possible that Germany will broaden the experiment and attempt a true Economic Parliament.