1 / 47

Retreat from Democracy: The Authoritarian, Fascist and Totalitarian States aka – Thug Politics

Retreat from Democracy: The Authoritarian, Fascist and Totalitarian States aka – Thug Politics. By 1939 only France and Great Britain are democracies. Pay close attention. Tomorrow is pseudo-communist day Shared responsibility, credit for participation

abel
Download Presentation

Retreat from Democracy: The Authoritarian, Fascist and Totalitarian States aka – Thug Politics

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Retreat from Democracy: The Authoritarian, Fascist and Totalitarian Statesaka – Thug Politics By 1939 only France and Great Britain are democracies

  2. Pay close attention Tomorrow is pseudo-communist day Shared responsibility, credit for participation Extra-credit for a totalitarian coup using tactics learned in class today, keeping in mind the goal is to learn and prep for test Friday

  3. Totalitarianism • National gov’t controls all aspects of public and private life • Active commitment of citizens • Mass propaganda techniques • High speed communication • Led by single leader and single party • Can be left or right wing • Seeks to erase line between gov’t and society

  4. Gov’t controlling people? That’s nothing new.Examples from history? Changed, due to modern communication, modern surveillance Born out of Total War

  5. The bloody 20th century • Estimates by RJ Rummel • 38 million die as a result of war in 20th C • 169 million die as a result of gov’t sponsored persecutions / murder • Why?

  6. Terror and Utopia • Ideas from historian Vejas Liulevicius • Utopia + Terror (modern technology + mass politics) + “mafia politics” = 20th Century • Utopia - born out of French revolution and utopian experiments • Terror - extended due to new technology • Mafia politics - organized conspiracies to consolidate power, with master plans promising a future utopia

  7. We’ll start in Italy

  8. Fascism • A type of totalitarianism • Right-wing • Extreme militarism and nationalism • Denial of personal rights • Dictatorial, one-party rule

  9. Fascist Italy • Italy had only existed for aprox 50 years • Impact of World War I • Lost: 700,000 men and 148 billion lire • Were not compensated in land as they’d hoped they’d be • Got S. Tyrol and Trieste, didn’t get Fiume and Dalmatia • Suffered from unemployment and inflation like the rest of Europe

  10. Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) • Failed elementary school teacher • Socialist, editor of socialist newspaper Avanti • Kicked out of Italian Socialist party for supporting Italian intervention in WWI • Fascio di Combattimento (League of Combat), 1919

  11. Italy getting more and more unstable in 1920s • Parliamentary coalitions unstable • Violent Strikes • Growing fear of communist revolution • Mussolini drifts to the right • Nationalistic, anti-striking workers, anti-communist • Creates Squadristi, armed Fascists, who attack striking workers, socialist papers, etc. • Fascist movement gains support from industrialists

  12. Alliance with liberals • Giovanni Giolitti and transformism • Liberals hope to use Mussolini’s forces and popularity, plan to drop him • He plans the same thing in reverse

  13. Growth of fascism • 200,000 black shirts by 1921 • Creating disorder up and down the peninsula - so fascists can be the party of order • Support:Veterans, students, middle and upper class

  14. March on Rome, 1922 • Mussolini plans march with black shirts • Delivers ultimatum to the gov’t • King Victorio Emmanuel III • Mussolini appointed prime minister, October 29, 1922 • October 30, actually march on Rome to make it look legit

  15. Fascist Government • Winning the majority in parliament • Acerbo Law - 25% of vote gets 2/3 of seats • Election day tactics • All parties outlawed, 1926 – Fascist dictatorship established • Press laws - illegal to disrespect the church, state or monarchy • No more due process

  16. Il Duce • Never had sophisticated media of Hitler or Stalin • “Mussolini is always right” • But he did have… • Young Fascists • 66% of population between 8-18 are enrolled • Camps drills, etc. • Dopolavoro - fascist fun in every town

  17. Women • Traditional ideas of women • Babies • Family is the pillar of the state • Employment of women forms “moral and physical habits contrary to childbearing” • Prizes, awards, subsidies for women with large families • 12/24 - mother and child day

  18. How shall he deal with the Catholic Church?

  19. Lateran Accords, February 1929 • Vatican City (109 acres in the center of Rome) recognized • Church recognizes Italy • Catholic church gets financial support from fascists • Church urges people to support fascists

  20. Mussolini may have paved the way But he never achieved totalitarianism Never controlled monarchy, military, church

  21. Spain • Still illiterate, rural, essentially undemocratic • Growing industry, post war inflation • General Miguel Primo de Rivera and the End of Parliamentary Government (1923) • A coup with the king’s consent • Collapses with the depression, along with the monarchy • Alfonzo leaves Spain in 19312

  22. A Spanish republic? • Total political chaos • The Spanish Civil War • The Popular Front • Antifascist coalition of leftists, gain control of gov’t in 1936 • This does not work for the army • General Francisco Franco (1892 – 1975) leads 3 year military revolt against the government • Inspires working class revolt - seizing factories, forming militias, etc

  23. Foreign intervention Franco receives aid from Hitler and Mussolini Testing ground for new weapons Popular Front asks Soviet Union for help, they get some, not much US, Great Britain and France remain neutral Abraham Lincoln brigade Army of the Popular Front is captured in Madrid, March 28, 1939 400,000 die, 200,000 executed by Franco Franco emerges victorious

  24. The Franco Regime • Traditional, conservative, dictatorship • Catering to large landowners, business and Catholic clergy • Lasts until Franco's death in 1975 • Portugal • Antonio Salazar (1889 – 1970)

  25. Patterns What worked for these dictators and what didn’t

  26. Soviet Union • Post-war issues • War Communism had nationalized industry, transportation, mining, banks • Great famine of 1920 - 1922 claims 5 million • Industry drops to 80% of what it had been

  27. New Economic Policy • Modified capitalism • Some privately owned industry (if employ less than 20 people) • Peasants can sell produce • Gov’t still owns big businesses, heavy industry • Union of Socialist Republics established, 1922 • No loans form America, Europe, self reliance

  28. Death of Lenin • Lenin suffers strokes, (1922-1924) • Power struggle - 7 member Politburo • Division • Leon Trotsky, left, want mass industrialization, spread the revolution to elsewhere in Europe • Right, continue NEP, concentrate on the needs of the Soviet Union • In the middle…

  29. Ioseph Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili The Man of Steel Stalin

  30. Joseph Stalin • 5’5”, born into absolute poverty, son of an alcoholic and a washerwoman • Not a great speaker, thinker or writer • General Party Secretary • Good organizer

  31. Path to power • Appoints and expels • 10,000 party appointments in 1922 alone • Filling party with his supporters • Expels Trotsky, and the rest of the old guard • Controls state by 1929

  32. The Stalinist Era, (1929-1939) • First Five Year Plan, 1928 • The plan: to transform the Soviet Union from an agricultural state into an economic powerhouse in 5 years. • A series of them, amazing gains • Industry by 1937 • Coal production 36 million tons to 128 million tons per year • Steel 4 million tons to 18 million tons per year

  33. Toll on the workers? • Worsened living conditions • Lower wages • Lack of freedom to move or travel • Propaganda used to sell the dream

  34. Rapid collectivization of agriculture • Gov’t takes 25 million privately owned farms, merges them into collectives, gives them modern farming equipment • Kulak - land owning peasants, fought bitterly • Killed their own livestock, burnt their crops • Police force them onto collectives with bayonets

  35. Liquidation of Kulaks • 3 million shot, exiled, imprisoned • 6 million die in gov’t engineered famines of 1932 - 1933 • Stalin once boasted to Churchill that 10 million peasants died at his hands • No Kulaks by 1935 • All peasants have for their own is a little garden plot

  36. Political Control • Political purge, 1936-1938; 8 million arrested, tried, killed or sent to Siberia • He may have been responsible for killing more people than anyone ever (20 million?)

  37. Propaganda • Referred to self as “The Greatest genius of all times and peoples” • State has control of education - primary school through college • “Thank you comrade Stalin for this happy life”

  38. Propaganda • League of the Militant Godless • Museum of Atheism - shows religion as superstition • Superstar sacrificers

  39. What advancements in women’s rights had been made in Russia since the revolution?

  40. Declining birth rate • Abortion is outlawed • Fines for repeated divorce • Homosexuality made illegal • Large families promoted as patriotic duty • Free childcare, as women are still expected to work

  41. By 1940, the Soviet Union 1 of top 5 industrial nations on earth Has full employment Free medical care, education and old age insurance

More Related