Administration.—While in the United States the principle of relationship between the Union and the States in regard to legislation and ad ministration is, that laws made by the Union are executed by federal officers and laws made by the states are executed by state officers, in Germany the general rule is that imperial laws are carried out by state officials. The empire reserves to itself merely the right of supervision, so that the laws are carried out in the spirit in which they were made. If a state refuses to carry out an imperial law it can be forced to do so by the Kaiser upon a decision by the Bundesrat. This process, which so far has never been necessary, is called "Federal Execution? Certain fields of imperial legislation arc, however, directly ad ministered by federal officers, such as matters pertaining to diplomatic and consular, army, naval, colonial, certain financial, post and tele graph affairs. And finally there are a few cases, in which only a general principle is laid down by imperial legislation, while the details of legislation and the whole administration are left to the several states.
The Empire and the The unequal position of the individual states in the federal reprbsentative organ, the Bundesrat, and the relation of imperial legislation and state admin istration, as well as the special position of Prussia have been described previously. There remain to be mentioned a few special privi leges of certain states. These privileges can be abolished only with the consent of the re spective states. Thus Bavaria has privileges in regard to railroad regulation, military matters, post and telegraphs. Bavaria, Wiirtemberg and Baden have the right of taxation of wine and beer, produced in their territory. Wiirtemberg has some special privileges in regard to her post and telegraph service and in regard to the organization of her army. Hamburg and Bremen enjoy the privilege of a small free port, i.e., a territory exempt from the cus toms duties of the empire.
All matters not regulated by the consti tution of the empire or by imperial law are left to the legislation of the states. Among these are: A large field of taxation, laws rela tive to church and schools, agriculture, forestry, mining, hunting, water and road rights.
The Organization of the The three republics of the Federation are the so called Hanse Cities—Hamburg, Bremen and Liibecic Their organs of government are a Senate elected by the lower House and presided over by a mayor and a lower House, the Biirgerschaft, elected by universal suffrage in Hamburg and by a property class system in the other two city-states. The two bodies are co-ordinated factors in legislation. The ad ministration is in the hands of members of the Senate, the mayor being the head of the ad ministration. In the two grand-duchies of Mecklenburg the monarchs are limited by a representation of two estates. All the other states (four kingdoms, four grand-duchies, five duchies, seven principalities) are modern con stitutional monarchies. The rulers are limited in the exercise of their governmental rights by legislative chambers, in the larger states, after the English model by two chambers, in the smaller states by one. The Upper House is
composed of hereditary members of the nobility and prominent citizens appointed by the sover eigns. The suffrage for the lower chambers differs widely. Prussia has still a class system of voting based on the amount of direct taxes, giving the wealthy people a preponderating in fluence in the affairs of the state, while Wiir temberg has even partly introduced proportional representation. It is to be expected that soon the suffrage for the Reichstag will be introduced in all states for the election of the lower Houses.
The local government of the different states differs widely. There are even fundamental differences within the larger states. The reason for this somewhat strange situation is found in the historical development of the different parts of Germany. In general, the western and south ern parts of Germany which have been strongly under Napoleonic influence have developed and preserved a more bureaucratic administration, while the central German parts under the in fluence of Stein-Hardenberg have introduced the English and old Germanic system of self government, and in the eastern thinly popu lated parts, where landlordism has been so long in existence, some remnants of the old feudal system are still to be found. The smaller states have usually two divisions of local gov ernment, the larger ones three. It is impos sible to discuss even in outline form the many differences of local government in the several states of the empire. We can only state very briefly the organization of local government in the central and eastern parts of Prussia. The largest unit of local government is the province, of which Prussia has 12. Its local affairs are partly administered by state and partly by unpaid honorary lay-officers,' promi nent, public-spirited inhabitants of the province. It has a large legislative assembly elected by the assemblies of the circles, a smaller executive council and an administrative head. The next subdivision, the district, is purely a division of state government. A district contains several circles, which are organized in analogy to the provinces. The circle is composed of county and city communities. The city has the most perfect self-government of all the divisions of local government. Its organs are a large as sembly, elected by a suffrage somewhat similar to that for the lower state legislature (which, with modifications, is the model for all elections in local government), a small council, elected by the assembly, and one or two mayors, usually elected by the assembly alone or by both bodies for a period of 6 or 12 years, or sometimes for life. The members of the council are partly unpaid honorary laymen, partly highly trained and well paid administrative officers. Country communities are organized on a similar basis. Besides these units of local government, there still exist a number of manors, in which the lord of the manor has all the rights and duties of government.