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Commissions of Inquiry in Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Fritz Morstein Marx
Fritz Morstein Marx
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

Inquiries are ventures into the unknown. As instrumentalities of government, officially organized investigations are a relatively recent addition to the mechanism of politics. Leaving aside regular agencies of criminal procedure such as the grand jury, one may say that the emergence of investigating committees is closely connected with the growth of representative government. Parliamentary inquiries have come to be regarded as essential implements of legislative control over the executive branch. The present brief survey of German experience undertakes to show the potentialities and limitations of a different type of officially organized investigation: the executive inquiry.

Type
Foreign Governments and Politics
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 30 , Issue 6 , December 1936 , pp. 1134 - 1143
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1936

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References

1 Cf. Willoughby, W. F., Principles of Judicial Administration (Washington, 1929), pp. 174ffGoogle Scholar.

2 White, Leonard D., Trends in Public Administration (New York and London, 1933), p. 341Google Scholar.

3 Cf. the papers by Marx, Fritz Morstein, Zurcher, Arnold J., Maxwell, Bertram W., and Jászi, Oscar in Childs, Harwood L. (ed.), Propaganda and Dictatorship (Princeton, 1936), pp. 11ff., 35ff., 61ff., and 83ffGoogle Scholar.

4 “Germany has had an extremely long and continuous history of interest in administrative efficiency. The interest is an illustration of her political character, and her psychology in politics could be written by deduction from this as a major premiss.” Finer, Herman, The Theory and Practice of Modern Government (London, 1932), Vol. 2, p. 1280Google Scholar. Cf. Marx, Fritz Morstein, “Civil Service in Germany,” in Civil Service Abroad (New York and London, 1935), pp. 161ffGoogle Scholar.

5 Cf. Zahn, Friedrich in Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, 4th ed., Ergänzungsband (Jena, 1929), p. 1085Google Scholar.

6 Rosenbaum, Eduard, “Zur Methode von Enqueten,” Wirtschaftsdienst, Vol. 11, p. 949 (1926)Google Scholar.

7 Cf. Engel, Ernst, “Die Schilderungsobjekte der Gewerbestatistik,” Zeitschrift des Königlich-Preussischen Statistischen Bureaus, Vol. 11, pp. 396ff. (1871)Google Scholar.

8 For further references on the commissions of 1872 and 1875, see Rosenbaum, loc. cit., p. 950.

9 Bundesrat resolutions of January 31, 1874, and February 19, 1875.

10 Ergebnisse der über die Frauen- und Kinderarbeit in den Fabriken auf Beschluss des Bundesrats angestellten Erhebungen (Berlin, 1877)Google Scholar; Ergebnisse der über die Verhältnisse der Lehrlinge, Gesellen und Fabrikarbeiter auf Beschluss des Bundesrats angestellten Erhebungen (Berlin, 1877)Google Scholar.

11 For references, see Rosenbaum, loc. cit., p. 951.

12 The report was published February 26, 1879, as Drucksache des Bundesrats, No. 39 (Session of 1878–79).

13 Act of June 26, 1878 (Reichsgesetzblatt, p. 129).

14 Article 82 of the Prussian constitution.

15 Article 20 of the Reich constitution.

16 The report was published December 22, 1878, as Drucksache des Bundesrats, No. 144 (Session of 1878–79).

17 The report was published March 21, 1884, as Drucksache des Bundesrats, No. 41 (Session of 1883–84).

18 Kanzler-Regulative of April 1, 1892, and January 29, 1894 (Zentralblatt für das Deutsche Reich, 1892, p. 166Google Scholar, and 1894, p. 19).

19 Drucksachen der Kommission für Arbeiterstatistik, 22 leaflets (Berlin, 1893–1902)Google Scholar.

20 Zentralblatt für das Deutsche Reich (1902), p. 100Google Scholar.

21 One of the civil servants was also a member of the Reichstag.

22 Cf. Weber, Max, “Die Ergebnisse der deutschen Börsenenquete,” Zeitschrift für das Gesamte Handelsrecht, Vol. 43, pp. 87ff. (1895)Google Scholar. See also Göppert, , “Börsenrecht,” Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, 4th ed., Vol. 2 (Jena, 1924), p. 1030Google Scholar.

23 For references, see Rosenbaum, Eduard, “Deutsche Enqueten,” Wirtschaftsdienst, Vol. 11, p. 1025 (1926)Google Scholar.

24 For references, see Rosenbaum, ibid., p. 1026.

25 Report of the Departmental Committee on the Procedure of Royal Commissions of June 25, 1910 (Cmd. 5235).

26 Cf. Neumann, F. J., Die deutsche Fabrikgesetzgebung und die betreffs derselben zu veranstaltende Enquete (Jena, 1873)Google Scholar; Embden, Georg, “Das Verfahren bei Enqueten über soziale Verhältnisse,” Schriften des Vereins für Sozialpolitik, Vol. 13, pp. 1 ff. (1877)Google Scholar; Schnapper-Arndt, , Zur Methodologie Sozialer Enqueten (Frankfurt a/M., 1888)Google Scholar.

27 Act of October 28, 1918 (Reichsgesetzblatt, p. 1274).

28 See Marx, Fritz Morstein, Beiträge zum Problem des Parlamentarischen Minderheitenschutzes (Hamburg, 1924), p. 33Google Scholar.

29 For references on the interpretation of Article 34, see Anschütz, Gerhard, Die Verfassung des Deutschen Reichs, 14th ed. (Berlin, 1933), p. 216Google Scholar.

30 For references, see Rosenbaum, “Enqueten,” p. 1026.

31 See Marx, Fritz Morstein, “The New Roof over German Local Government,” National Municipal Review, Vol. 23, pp. 255ff. (1934)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Die Hilfsbedürftigkeitsprüfung in der Arbeitslosenversicherung und Krisenfürsorge (Berlin, 1933)Google Scholar.

33 Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 195Google Scholar.

34 Cf. the articles by Grävell, W., Allgemeines Statistisches Archiv, Vol. 16, pp. 357ff. (1927)Google Scholar; Zahn, loc. cit., pp. 1084ff.; Bertram, Alfred, Wirtschaftsdienst, Vol. 11, pp. 701ff. (1926)Google Scholar; Eduard Rosenbaum, ibid., pp. 1053ff.

35 Bertram, ibid., p. 702.

36 Zahn, loc. cit., p. 1084.

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