The powers vested in the President of the Reich by the Constitution are in general analogous to those possessed by every chief of state in a parliamentary country. Just as the Reichstag exercises in addition to its purely legislative powers a control over the Cabinet and its administration, just so, if the principles of the parliamentary system are to be applied, the President must be invested, in addition to his strictly executive authority, with powers that permit him to co-operate in legislative work and to exercise a control over the Reichstag itself. It is precisely this, in effect, that the Constitution provides for. The President of the Reich has executive powers. He nominates ministers, he represents the Reich in foreign relations, he appoints all the civil and military servants, he is supreme chief of the forces of the Reich by land and sea, he exercises the right of pardon and he may make regulations.[42] He has also powers of a legislative character. He alone has authority to promulgate and publish enacted laws. He exercises a kind of right of veto over these laws; and he may, according to circumstances, in the complicated conditions we have already examined, either retard the entrance of these laws into operation, or submit them to the people by means of a referendum. Finally, he exercises a certain control over the Reichstag. He may order the President of the Reichstag to convoke that Assembly earlier than the normal date of its meeting. He nominates the judicial members of the electoral commission for disputed elections to the Reichstag. He may dissolve the Reichstag, etc. It goes without saying that in none of these cases can the President take action without securing the support and the countersignature of a Minister. That is the essential condition of a parliamentary régime. But to strengthen the action of a President and to give his position a place of real pre-eminence, which is desired for him, the Constitution entrusts him with a certain number of powers, which we must note particularly, for they are perhaps peculiar to the German Presidency, and give it a special character.