Three-class suffrage in Prussia
The violence of the March Revolution of 1848 in Berlin forced King Frederick William IV to make concessions. Although he eventually cracked down on dissent and regained the upper hand, the monarch felt it necessary to make some compromises and issued a written constitution on 31 January 1850.
Despite a progressive appearance, the balance of the new constitutional order was weighted heavily towards the representatives of the traditional order.
A bicameral parliament was created to pass laws, but of the two chambers, only the second was elected by all male Prussians. Whilst only the richest citizens were able to vote in elections for the first chamber, the second chamber was elected through a three-class electoral system. Male voters were divided into three groups according to the amount of tax they paid, with the vote of a first-class citizen carrying twenty times more weight than that of a third-class voter.
This was not representative government and ensured that power was concentrated in the hands of the wealthy. The three-class system remained in force until its abolition with the November Revolution of 1918.
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