Authoritarian States & Italian Fascism

• States with unaccountable ruling regimes, restricted political pluralism, and limited civil rights are authoritarian states.

Germany's Totalitarian State

• One party, driven by ideology, sought to control all aspects of life, with a monopoly of power.

Emergence of Authoritarian States

• Authoritarian movements with an ideological driver were not unique to Germany.
• WW1 triggered change in every nation that participated.
• Authoritarian regimes were given opportunity by the massive economic, social, and political disruption caused by the conflict
• In addition to the disillusionment produced by the terms of peace.
• Destruction of older state systems lead to emergence of regimes attempted to wield control of every aspect of the lives of citizens.

Italian Fascism as a Model

• Italian fascism served as a model for Hitler, early in his movement.
• Fascism's rise in Italy (1919–1925) show similarities with factors promoting National Socialism's growth in Germany.
• Germany (1919–1934) illustrates how a totalitarian regime emerged after a brief period of democratic government following World War 1.

Timeline of Key Events

• 1918: "November Revolution" and declaration of a republic.
• 1919: A convention held in Weimar to produce a constitution for the new democratic republic
• 1919-1923: Early problems and threats to the Weimar Republic, political and economic.
• 1923-1929: Weimar's "Golden Era/Gilded era" characterized by growth and stability under Gustav Stresemann
• 1930: Decline of accountable democratic government and rule by presidential decree
• 1933: Death of the Weimar Republic and the rise and establishment of National Socialism;
• 1934: Gleichschaltung and the establishment of the Führer state was largely accomplished.
• Was democracy desperately desired in Germany in 1918.
• The implementation may have been a scheme by Germany's wartime leaders instead.
• The scheme could to avoid a punitive settlement after Germany's surrender.
• Was the constitution established in 1919 a hindrance to successful democratic practice?
• What role did economic distress play in polarizing and brutalizing German political life during the period?
• How valid is AJP Taylor's view: "only the Great Depression put the wind into the sails of National Socialism"?
• What elements in Germany after 1918 were either actively hostile or simply apathetic towards the new system?
• Was the rise to power of a party committed to a totalitarian system a story of "irresistible rise" of National Socialism?

Change

• The Weimar democratic system, established in Germany after the First World War, preceded the establishment of the single-party National Socialist state.
• The National Socialist consolidation occurred in 1934 when Adolf Hitler became Führer of Germany.
• National Socialism gained the support of the military.
• Hitler's ambition was to establish his "Thousand Year (Third) Reich".
• The Weimar Republic was a difficult transition between the Wilhelm inian Kaiserreich and the Third Reich.
• Weimar state appeared as "a desperate and grudging experiment in democracy" with not only German implications.

Pessimistic View of German history

• National Socialism triumphed as an inevitable and irresistible force welcomed by most Germans.
• The National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) never had a majority of the electorate.
• The highest percentage of votes achieved in March 1933 was 43.9 per cent.
• The Nazis achieved power through a combination of circumstances.
• Recent interpretations say the “Stabübergabe" by vested interests in Germany tried using the Nazis to counter the rise of the Communist Party (KPD)
• The vested interests made and effort between 1932-1933.
• If there's a democratic sentiment in Germany, Hitler would not have a way in
• Germanophobes believe the emergence and coming to power of National Socialism was the result of an inherent inability in the German character to appreciate and accept democratic principles.
• Internal and external were facing the democratic experiment; it was logically culminate in the long-term trends in specifically German culture and ideology.

Conditions Which Led To Authoritarian State

• A discredited parliamentary system produced high level of disillusionment and frustration

• The dislocation produced by World war I produced revisionism, revanchism, and nationalism.

• Economic issues produced panic among population; political extremism resulted.

• Fear of the Left was increased by the existence of new Soviet state and the growth of socialist/communist movements in western Europe

• The semi-legal assumption of power, despite subsequent fascist/Nazi claims of a "seizure of power"

• 5 The collaboration/capitulation of the existing political establishment or institutions – when vested interests underestimated the Fascists/Nazis in a tragedy of miscalculation

• The semi-legal assumption of power, despite subsequent fascist/Nazi claims of a "seizure of power"

Explanation of authoritarian states with unaccountable ruling, restricted pluralism, and limited civil rights. Fascism's rise in Italy (1919–1925) mirrors factors that promoted National Socialism's growth in Germany. WW1 triggered change and disruption, leading to the emergence of regimes seeking total control.