With the vote of the Social Democratic Party, the Reichstag (the German Empire's parliament) agreed to give the government certain powers to take the necessary economic measures during the war.
The enabling act on 24 February 1923, originally limited until 1 June but extended until 31 October, empowered the cabinet to resist the occupation of the Ruhr.
On the basis of these acts, a vast number of decrees were signed with enormous importance for social and economic life, the judicial system, and taxes.
For example, the reform of German currency in response to hyperinflation, the merger of the Länderbahnen into the Deutsche Reichsbahn national railway system, and unemployment pay were settled via such decrees (Vollmacht-Verordnungen).
These enabling acts were unconstitutional, as the Weimar constitution did not provide the possibility that one organ (parliament) would transfer its rights to another one (executive government).
The German word Ermächtigungsgesetz usually refers to the Enabling Act of 1933, officially Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich ("Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the State").
[10] The act gave the newly established Church Assembly, predecessor of the General Synod, power to prepare and present to Parliament measures which could either be approved or rejected, but not modified by either House.
[12] In the 1930s, both Sir Stafford Cripps and Clement Attlee advocated an enabling act to allow a future Labour government to pass socialist legislation which could not be amended by normal parliamentary procedures and the House of Lords.
[13] During the Great Depression and World War II, Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists pledged to enact an enabling act establishing a corporatist dictatorship if it were allowed to form a government.
[14] In 1966 Oswald Mosley advocated a government of national unity drawn from "the professions, from science, from the unions and the managers, from businessmen, the housewives, from the services, from the universities, and even from the best of the politicians".
This coalition would be a "hard centre" oriented one which would also get Parliament to pass an Enabling Act in order to stop what Mosley described as "time-wasting obstructionism of present procedure".
He also claimed that Parliament would always retain the power to dismiss his government by a motion of censure if its policies failed or if it attempted to "override basic British freedoms".
[19] Nevada was required to abolish slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime; to guarantee freedom of religious practice to all inhabitants; and to agree that all public lands owned by the federal government at the time of statehood would be retained after admission.
Other enabling acts have allowed municipalities to establish foreign-trade zones, collect impact fees, or create public utilities.
In Venezuela, enabling laws allowing the president to rule by decree in selected matters were granted to Rómulo Betancourt (1959),[24] Carlos Andrés Pérez (1974),[25] Jaime Lusinchi (1984),[26] Ramón José Velásquez (1993)[27] and Rafael Caldera (1994).
[29] In mid-2000, a similar law enabled Hugo Chávez to legislate on issues related to the economy, reorganization of government ministries and crime for one year.