A Study Of The Historical Process Of The State-Building Of Germany From 1848 To 1918

The fail of the state-building is one of the reasons why the German Empire went to collapse in World War I. The outset of German state-building has its own characteristics. The primary task is to achieve the political unification of the state. Emphasizing on deliberation and Liberalism, the movement of state-making through the constitutionalism which was led by the bourgeoisie, could not realize the achievement of domestic political unification and resist the severe constraints from the international society. Only the political unit which has a strong military capability can make the goal achieved through the war. The expanding of the defects of old regime resulted in the expansion of autonomy power of administrative and decision making departments in military field. At the same time, the contentious politics from the society didn’t form a force which could change the regime of state. As a result, the defects of regime could not be solved at the system level. The fail of state-building made the mistaken strategic decisions, which eventually led to the collapse of the German Empire in its launch of the First World War.The research method used in this paper is the historical process analysis which is combining factors and mechanisms. This paper argues that war and contentious politics are two core mechanisms which can explain the historical process of the German state-building.In this paper’s explanatory framework, we can find that not only the core mechanisms can be the key to explain the objects, but also the exogenous factors play an important role in driving or hindering the function of mechanism. Before the founding of the state of Germany in 1871, the war which played a unified function is the key to solve the problem of political unification. Then, the contentious politics became an important mechanism to overcome the defects of state-building following the establishment of the state of Germany. However, because of the complex interaction between the factors about state strategy, political party ideology, religious culture, international competition and so on, this mechanism could not play a role.In the process of state-building, people should arrange the order of the goals of political development. To establish an effective authority to achieve and maintain the political unity is the priority of the state-building. The regime should pay attention to maintain or improve its political legitimacy. In addition, the party system building is also an important part of the state-building.