In committees the representatives of the states naturally supported the latter of these alternatives. For them the former states at the moment of signing the confederate pact gave up to the federal state a certain number of their powers; but they have kept others. The Revolution has changed nothing in this situation; it has thrown out the dynasties, but it has not at all changed the integrity and the rights of the individual states. It is in these states therefore that sovereignty originally resides. The sovereignty of the Reich is only derived; although the Reich is no longer an alliance of Princes, it is certainly an alliance of the Republics that compose it. This theory has not prevailed. It is true that one could not go so far as to admit that the sovereignty of the states is derived from that of the Reich and is given to them by the latter; but it is equally true that it cannot be admitted that the sovereignty of the states is expressly limited by the rights that the Reich attributes to itself. It has been admitted, therefore, that the people is sovereign in the Reich, but that it is equally and by the same title sovereign in the states in the spheres of action which are left to the states. Such is the principle proclaimed by Article 1, paragraph 2, of the Constitution. That does not mean to say, however, that attempts and proposals were not made to make a breach in it or to draw from it debatable deductions. A study of these attempts and proposals will enable us to understand more precisely the sense and import of this principle. 2.--THE COUNCILS SYSTEM, OR THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT. The first projects formulated and presented against this principle, and to the realization of which the Independents and the Communists bent every effort, may be characterized in a word: they aimed to give over all political and economic power to Workers Councils, to organize the dictatorship of the proletariat. These proposals, such as developed particularly by Däumig, theoretician of the Independents, may be summed up as follows: