was responsible for providing the People's Chamber with the major legal drafts and decisions that subsequently were to be promulgated by the parliament. The work style of the Council of Ministers was a collective one. It normally met on a weekly basis to discuss problems and plans put forward by individual ministers. It also confirmed decisions that were already made by the Presidium. The Presidium was of special importance because of its responsibility for handling the affairs of the council when the full body was not in session. Specific functional responsibilities of the Council of Ministers included directing and planning the national economy; solving problems growing out of membership in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon—see Appendix B); coordinating and implementing social policy decisions that have been agreed upon with the support and concurrence of the Free German Trade Union Federation (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund—FDGB); instructing and controlling subordinate levels of government, i.e., the councils at district, county, and community levels that implemented the laws and decisions of the central government; improving the functioning of the system of "democratic centralism" within the state apparatus; and carrying out the basic foreign policy principles of the socialist state. Judiciary Like all other aspects of the government administration of East Germany, the party was the ultimate decision maker in the operation of the legal system. The Constitution, however, provided for the right of citizens to a voice in the judicial process and the selection of judges, directly or through their elected representatives. It further provided for citizen participation in the administration of justice in an effort to deter crime. Basic guarantees for justice were said to derive from the "socialist society, the political power of the working people, and their state and legal system." In fact, separation of powers did not exist in the East German system of government. Although the Constitution asserted the independence of the courts, it also subordinated the judiciary to the political authorities and their political goals. Even the superficially democratic 1949 Constitution subordinated the judiciary, along with all other government organs, to the People's Chamber. Judgeships were restricted to Communists of proven loyalty. The regime officially considered law and justice the tools for building a communist society and declared it the duty of all judicial and legal officers to serve this end. In effect, legal and judicial organs served as agencies for promoting official doctrine, and the careers