Unit 5 Democracy and its Enemies - Introduction Flashcards
5 Introduction
Democracy is the natural consequence of modern population density, combined with the education of the population necessary to nurture it, with industrialisation, mobilisation, defence preparations and politicistion - Troeltsch 1994
1914-19 a general European trend towards democratic rule.
The ideological influence of nineteenth-century liberalism encouraged democratic constitutions
British French, US democracies also influenced their creation, Woodrow Wilson promises a ‘people’s peace’ forming of the League of Nations but France demands full reparations
5 Introduction 2
The spectre of Bolshevism also made democracies seem a necessary imperative
Western liberals believed that democracy was intrinsically modern and its spread inevitable, outside of liberal bubble, it was looked on as a bourgeois mirage or threateningly alien
BUT by the 1930’s, some were doubtful (at best) about democracy’s permanence, mainly due to economic failures
5.1 Constructing democracy: the German Revolution and Weimar
German Revolution - a political (not social) one i.e. its prevailing social structure not fundamentally altered
Hohenzollern collapse caused by war tensions especially on the home front radicalised Germans and officer corps believes that better peace terms can be gained by a democratic govt not a monarchy, immediate causes were naval riots and council (communist) movements emergence
Ebert (SPD) leader able to construct agreements with liberals and military avoids social revolution thus isolating revolutionaries like the Spartacists as well as use of demobilised soldiers (Freikorps) and students to quash communists secured the republic
First two years the republic was threatened by urban disorder, communist revolts and insurrection from the nationalist right, Hitler imprisoned, Mein Kampf
5.1 Constructing democracy: the German Revolution and Weimar 2
1919 - Elections for a new National Assembly to sit at Weimar, hence Weimar Republic - in general a democracy government
Fear at what was going to emerge people unsure of the future
DNVP - The German National Party (Conservatives)
SPD - Social Democratic Party (social democrats)
DDP - Catholic Centre Party (Centre Catholics)
NSDAP - Nazis
DVP - NationalLiberals
5.1 Constructing democracy: the German Revolution and Weimar 3
The Weimar Constitution August 1919 - Gender equality, freedom of expression, secular in nature, state involvement in welfare, plebiscites and majoritarianism (direct vote of all) seen as integral to democracy
Dissolving - President has clear precedence over the legislature with extensive emergency powers to suspend democratic rule - Hitler uses this to destroy Weimar democracy after the Reichstag fire in 1933
Catholic political parties (confessional) helped and defended German democracy until pressured into supporting Hitler’s Enabling Act in 1933. Once their support was removed, Weimar was finished
5.1 Constructing democracy: the German Revolution and Weimar 4
The Enabling Act gave Hitler plenary (unqualified, absolute) powers. It followed on the heels of the Reichstag Fire Decree, which abolished most civil liberties and transferred state powers to the Reich government. The combined effect of the two laws was to transform Hitler’s government into a legal dictatorship.
Hitler had become chancellor 1933 with the previous chancellor Von Papen’s help, who thought he and the Junkers would control a puppet right, but it became the other way around
Nazis create a non-existant historical mythology of pure bred German knights, racial purity and implement the Nuremberg Laws 1935 against Jews
5.2 Economic troubles, 5.2.1 Before the slump
WWI causes massive market dislocation, inflation, loss of overseas earnings, depletion in capital stock, major demographic shifts, state debt, reduced capital investment, trade disruption
Demobilisation and peace settlements creates psychological and industrial problems capitalism’s problems causes instability in democracies as two dependant on each other provoking anti-democratic factions though pan national League of Nations and in 1920’s pan-European cooperation - reduced tariffs and closer market integration
1923 US The Dawes Plan - US loans would stop Germany defaulting on reparations, consequently the Allies would be able to repay the $2.5 billion war debts to the USA sooner thus stabilising markets, encouraging lending and private investment and European governments re-adopt the gold standard - Europe’s health now dependant on US performance
5.2 Economic troubles, 5.2.1 Before the slump 2
France suffered more wartime damage than any other combatant
France also had the highest per capita (per head) war death rate of any major belligerent
France adopts new systems in devastated areas in 1920-30 using Taylorist methods in modern motor plants becoming the second largest car maker in the interwar period
Germany’s wounds psychological and economic severe commodity shortages and postwar reparations bill devastates confidence, default causes the Franco-Belgian occupation in the Ruhr 1923 and collapse in the DM
5.2 Economic troubles, 5.2.1 Before the slump 3
Hyperinflation (proves to be 1 million times their pre-war level obliterates savings and leaves many in danger of starvation Rentier (living of property or investments) class badly affected driving them towards authoritarian solutions 1923 - Weimar's inability to resist disorder without foreign assistance, Nazi Munich putsch Hitler
Prosperity eventually returned but peace of mind didn’t, stability via the rentenmark in 1923 backed by bonds indexed to the market price of gold 2790 marks per Kg of gold
Between 1925-30 Germans were successful in augmenting a network of cartels that formed the backbone of the Nazi economic regime
5.2.2 The Great Depression and its effects
The Way Street Crash 1929 - Depression weakened democracy by showing the weakness of liberal solutions and social effects of unemployment, family strife caused by this, hunger, idleness, alienation, deflation (reduced prices) causing the ‘centre’ to go to extremists’(Nazis) and National Unemployed Workers Movement a British Communist party front
Soviet Union still growing as divorced from global markets
5.3 Extremist Threats, 5.3.1 Ideologies
Socialists divide on parliamentary and revolutionary roads to socialism
Syndicalism - France the use of general strikes a s weapon and factory occupations and expropriation of capitalist assets - Sorel (philosopher) used in Italy and Spain were labour conditions were especially hard
Germany the highly stratified KPD (Communist Party) under Moscow’s influence
Far Rights beliefs - Anti-communist, lineal, democratic, parliamentarian, rational (also often anti-Semitism and capitalism) BUT pro-nationalist
5.3 Extremist Threats, 5.3.1 Ideologies 2
Spengler (German political thinker 1920’s) Identifies democracy’s flaws and that an anti-rational movement would arise stressing ‘blood’, duty and honour, he influences (though is banned by) Facist’s he posits that democracy was ‘not under threat; but was itself ‘thereatiening’
New radical right that displaces authoritarian right (the old monarchists, landed elite, church). Nazis promote modern technology on one hand but yearn for the Teutonic ideal on the other (e.g. house design). In Spain it is the pre-Franco Falangists in France the per-modern regime loving Faisceau, in Britain the British Union of Facists lead by Oswald Mosley
5.3.2 Perceptions
Perceptions of extremism generally black and white especially in democratic politicians’ assumptions
Bolshevik Threat - Old suppositions apparent about the brutal and backward nature of Slavs informed this caricature - doubly menacing
France’s Prime Minister Poincare - Far left intent on destroying capitalism and French nationhood, ruthless, foreign enemy, undermining the French state
An overestimation of the communists that meant that the far right was overlooked at first, Conservatives thought Facisim could be tamed and brought not line e.g. Von Pappen
5.3.2 Perceptions 2
Under democracy, landed elites find it hard to build mass movements and instead align with fascists to protect their interest (the fascists as ‘useful idiots to counter communists by thuggery - Von Pappen, Hindenberg, until they realised they had a tiger by the tail in the 1934 Night of the Long Knives
The communists also think the fascists are ‘laughable’ and can be used to demolish the liberal parliaments after which the communists can take over, help the fascists overthrow Bruning in May 1932, followed by conservative Von Papen in 1932, who is outwitted by Hitler in 1933, Reichstag Fire 1933, Enabling Act 1933 a game over
1936 suppression of fascism in France, Belgium and Britain
5.3.3 examples
Italy 1919-20 The biennio rosso (red two years) strikes, clashes between workers and employees, unrest culminates in factory occupations 1920 - the Italian Syndicalist Union, Government unwilling to intervene
Result, governments sloth makes many embrace fascism (Pollard)
squadrist (the paramilitary wing of the National Facist Party) violence commences after 1920
Mussolini moves in on the Italian Liberals, has a coalition government but effects Dictatorship via stealth
