The ruling classes abandoned constitutional restraint while Social Democrats kept obeying it

Evidence

Weimarand What Then? (1930) was an urgent warning to the Social Democrats: while they were sticking to the constitution and to parliamentarism, and concentrating all their strength on them, the ruling classes had long since ceased to let themselves be restricted by the constitution. They were taking advantage in particular of the flourishing of the bureaucracy produced by the ambivalence of the constitution and the temporary balance between class forces. Kirchheimer considered the hope that it would be possible to put a stop to the decline by means of constitutional reformby normalizing and legalizing deteriorated conditionsto be completely mistaken. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 956

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Constitutions only endure when they reflect actual social power relations — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 839; Habsburg German liberals abandoned democratic reform once it threatened their dominance — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 109; Ruling classes absorb and neutralize subversive movements through transformism — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2079

Broader Connections

• Habsburg German liberals abandoned democratic reform once it threatened their dominance #exemplifies (0.85) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 109
• Constitutions only endure when they reflect actual social power relations #complicates (0.75) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 839
• Ruling classes absorb and neutralize subversive movements through transformism #expands (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2079