Unit 7 Introduction Flashcards
Introduction, 7.1 Democracies and the right
A fight between 3 ideologies Liberal Democracy, Communism and Fascism
What were the roles played by consent and coercion in maintaining the dictatorships?
Popular historiography perceived a resurgence in more brutal/violent forms of authoritarianism in the interwar years which necessitated (caused) the second World War. progressive liberal democracy triumphing in 1945 and then with the fall of the Berlin Wall
Introduction, 7.1 Democracies and the right 2 (Mazower)
Mazower - democracy had ‘very shallow routes’ across most of the interwar period, looked tired, more suited to 19th C. Social democracy under negative pressure from Soviet Union’s new focus on social policy - health, welfare, family and social security
Proportional representation led to fragmented parliaments typified by confrontation instead of communication
Governments short-lived, question, where Latin peoples even suited to democracy? In Interwar years the right seen as a ‘defence’ against communism and instability
An inherent lack of democratic values as returning soldiers had a mindset that believed nothing could be achieved without bloodshed
Introduction, 7.1 Democracies and the right 3 (Mazower)
Mussolini and Hitler came to power using the new parliamentary system and playing the game of mass politics. Once they had power they followed their own extremist agenda.
Nazi regieme’s legitimacy = the popular will ‘as manifested in the decrees of the Fuhrer, law was subordinate to the demands of politics and the needs that Hitler identified
The Fuhrer (Leader) offers inspiration and security
manipulation and propaganda helped Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin to ‘stand above’ corrupt and incompetent officials
7.2 Concepts
Totalitarian - The dictatorships defeated in WWII nd the communist dictatorships of the Cold War
Carl Friedrich and Hannah Arendt (theorists in this area)
Friedrich;s ‘six-point syndrome of main totalitarian characteristics (1954), 1 an official ideology, 2 a single, mass party, 3 police control with the use of terror, 4 complete control of the media, monopoly of weaponry , 6 central direction of the economy
Arendt, ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’ - dictatorships of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union differed from previous authoritarian regimes in that they sought to dominate all aspects of life
Political police’s first task - track down political opponents and then ‘objective enemies’ (anyone else who complained and defined as a threat by the government), ordinary social relations disappear, the predominant experience was fear
7.2 Concepts 2
Historian Roger Griffin’s generic meaning to ‘facist’ - ‘they share a mobilising vision often national community rising phoenix-like after period of encroaching decadence which all but destroyed it’ (1993)
Facist thugs in Italy (Fasci di Combattimento’ win landowners support in 1920’ by being the strong arm men against socialist mayors and peasant leagues. German example the National Socialist German workers’ Party’ NSDAP - Germany’s ‘special path’ (Fritz Fischer and Hans Mommsen think) the old elite supports Hitler during the Weimar Republic crisis in the belief that this would solve the country’s ills and Hitler, they could ultimately control.
The concepts of race and class were central to respectively, the ideology of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union
7.2 Concepts 3
The Nazis legitimised their race ideology saying it was ‘scientific’ as per Darwinian ideas, race struggle and the creation of a racial pure state.
Many Italian Facist’s though are shocked and appalled by the treatment of the Jews, German historian Bracher (1976) argues that Nazi anti-Semitism makes any generic concept (of Facisim) meaningless.
Nazis improve their national stock by euthanasia and sterilisation (e.g. mental patients’ extermination)
7.3 What did the Soviets think they were doing?
Many (Russia 1960’s and up to 1980’s) glossed over the horrors of Stalin’s regime on the basis that the Soviet Union was progressive and modernising
Apologists for Stalin’s atrocities were following the thinking of left-wing intellectuals during the inter-war years. Apologists like the Webbs visiting USSR in the 1930’s thought it idyllic and in the midst of a boom due to its centralised planning
Stalin wants 5 year plans, increased industrial output and development that overtakes of capitalist countries
Stalin blames any failures on sabotage by ‘Bourgeois’ engineers they caused the gluts and bottlenecks that occurred not poor planning, target figures falsified, industry did expand however but agriculture was ‘generally a disaster’ (Clive Elmsley OU 2013)
7.3 What did the Soviets think they were doing? 2
Anti collectivist Kulaks, land-owning peasants and middle peasants identified as class enemies and counter-revolutionaries and subsequently liquidated. This results in low agricultural yields and in the 1933 famine which resulted in the deaths of 7 - 8 MILLION PEOPLE = Show trials and executions
Meanwhile the Soviets forge ahead with projects like the building of the new industrial city of Magnitogorsk (that uses force labour to be constructed)
7.4 What did the (radical) right think it was doing?
Mein Kampf published in 1924 and there is another unpublished work Zweites Buch that is published in the 1960’s - full of racial assumptions and assertions
Hitler (like Stalin) is fascinated by Taylorism (turning men into cogs in a machine)
Hitler strives for Lebensraum (living space) that also gives new materials and creates an internal market of US proportions - forward looking but vile concepts great for Germans (modernisation, technology and industry wise) literary death for others
7.4 What did the (radical) right think it was doing? 2
Motorisierung - increased car ownership throughout Germany a catch up e.g. with Ford workers
Work creation programmes and especially rearmament gets people back to work via state funding though this results in foreign exchange crisis e.g. on the eve of the Munich criss, Germany was almost bankrupt, his success enables an issue of government bonds that brings in more money
Though inefficient Nazis wanted a nation of traditional farmers on good-sized holdings and security of tenure, Nazis pass a law to protect small farmers from foreclosure - and also sees the east as an ideal place for land expansion
Nazis believe that nomadic peoples (Jews and gypsies) where the enemies of early farmers and the worst and most dangerous were the Jews.
7.4 What did the (radical) right think it was doing? 3
Italian fascists
Mussolini claims Fascism had swept away class conflict and brought in class collaboration and working clubs (not unions which he abolished) such as the Dopolavoro (clubs where workers could be controlled)
Lateran pacts heal the division between state and church (sing heil nuns!)
Fascism had given the Italians a sense of state, a ‘third way’ between capitalism and socialism
Foreign words Italianised and media cover restricted to positive only content
7.4 What did the (radical) right think it was doing? 4
Italian invasion (new empire) of Abyssinia 1935 (they had been defeated there in 1896, they owned Libya since 1912)
Italian Fascism not rural orientated (unlike Nazis) government wanted greater production of wheat ‘land for wheat’ i.e bigger farms not idealised peasant holdings, ergo peasants leave the land for the US and the cities
Employment raised by armaments production e.g Olvetti and machine guns, Fiat aircraft and motor vehicles as well as cars for the home market
Anti Mafia - Cesare Mori ‘Iron Prefect’ goes for the Mafia but doesn’t destroy it, it is massaged out of the media
7.5 War and some other dictatorships Spain
Franco, Spanish Civil War 1936-39 assisted with military by Hitler and Mussolini ( a training ground for the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe)
1931 monarchy overthrown, Left government 1931-33, centre right 1933-35, February 1936 Popular Front (alliances between communists, socialists and some liberals against fascism
Falange (Phalanx) 1933 Jose Antoni Primo de Riviera, insignificant organisation, an alternative to communism and capitalism (copying the Italian alternative)
7.5 War and some other dictatorships Spain 2
Primo de Riviera killed by Republicans in 1936 but party lives on via Franco who merges it with the ulna-right monarchist militia, disdains mass politics but sees the need to use and control it
Civil war results in 81.000 deaths in addition to Civil War casualties , thousands imprisoned, broken families
Franco dies in 1975, Hitler supported him due to the drive against Bolshevism
7.5 War and some other dictatorships Greece and others
Metaxas dictatorship, a traditional right winger like Franco but not too keen in linking Greece with the Fascists
Romania - King Carol like Mataxas not too keen on Nazis and executes leader of Iron Guard and several subordinates in 1939
