n of Imperial legislation. But
bills, including those relating to finance, originate ordinarily with
the Chancellor and the Bundesrath; the procedure followed in the
shaping of revenue and military measures puts the Reichstag distinctly
at a disadvantage; and, at the best, the part which the chamber can
play in the public policy of the Empire is negative and subsidiary. It
can block legislation and discuss at length the policy of the
Government, but it is not vested by the constitution with power
sufficient to make it an effective instrument of control. It is within
the competence of the Bundesrath, with the assent of the Emperor, to
dissolve the popular chamber at any time, and, as has been pointed
out, such action is taken without an iota of the ministerial
responsibility which in other nations ordinarily accompanies the right
of dissolution. On several occasions since 1871 the Reichstag has been
dissolved with the sheer intent of putting an end to its
obstructionism.[340]

[Footnote 340: Lowell, Governments and Parties, I.,
257.]

The standing orders of the chamber make mention of the right of
interpellation, and resort is occasionally had to this characteristic
continental legislative practice. There are no ministers, however, to
whom an interpellation may be addressed except the Chancellor, and
even he has no right to appear in the Reichstag save as a member of
the Bundesrath. The consequence is that interpellations are addressed,
in practice, to the Bundesrath. It is only where the parliamentary
system prevails, as in France and Italy, that the device of
interpellation can be made to assume much importance. The possibility
of a larger opportunity for interpellation, which should involve the
right of the chamber to adopt resolutions declaring satisfaction or
dissatisfaction with the answer made, was warmly, but on the whole
inconclusively, discussed in the Reichstag in 1912.[341]

[Footnote 341: On the Reichstag see Howard, The
German Empire, Chap. 5; A. Lebon, Le Reichstag
allemand, in _Annales de l'Ecole Libre des Sciences
Politiques_, April, 1889; ibid., Etudes sur
l'Allemagne politique, Chap. 2; Laband, Das
Staatsrecht des deutschen Reiches, Secs. 32-38; H.
Robalsky, Der deutsche Reichstag (Berlin, 1897); G.
Leser, Unter