The state parliament consisted of a landtag of a varying number of members but not fewer than 50, elected for a term of three years by universal suffrage.

The state administration, headed by a Minister-President was responsible to the landtag and could be removed by a vote of no confidence.

[1] For most of the Weimar period, the state governments were headed by either a Social Democrat or a Nationalist.

Thus, Mecklenburg-Schwerin was one of only five states to have installed a Nazi-led government before the Nazis came to power nationally.

[3] Following their seizure of power at the national level, the Nazi government enacted the "Second Law on the Coordination of the States with the Reich" that established more direct control over the states by means of the new powerful position of Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor).