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Sources of Political Innovations

1914 to Present

  1. Sources of Political Innovations
    1. Democratization
      1. Expansion of popular representation
        1. Women allowed to vote in Western nations then worldwide
    2. Interwar years
      1. Democracies weak
      2. Totalitarian dictatorships most dynamic
        1. Control as many aspects of citizen’s lives as possible
      3. Waning of democracy in interwar Europe
        1. After WWI, 23 govts democratic, by 1939 – only 12
        2. Fell victim to political extremism
          1. Stress of Great Depression – mass unemployment/inflation
        3. Replaced with right wing dictatorships
        4. Ethnic discrimination/blame
        5. Class tensions
        6. France and Britain struggling
          1. Financially strapped due to WWI
          2. Need loans from US and reparations from Germany to survive
          3. Leads to unemployment, strikes, and deficits
          4. No one political party can offer leadership
            1. France – frequent elections – power goes from left to right
      4. Strongest and most dynamic governments were dictatorships
      5. Fascism – destroy will of the individual for the sake of “the people”
        1. Italy – revolution came from the right
          1. Plagued by depression, political turmoil, threat of communism
            1. Constant strikes, turnover in government
          2. Middle and upper class afraid of left-wing revolution
            1. Need a strong leader
          3. Enter anti-communist, Fascist Benito Mussolini
            1. Fascism – revolution from the right, right-wing radicalism
              1. Doesn’t prevent change, brings about change
              2. Anticommunist, anticapitalist, antidemocratic
              3. Hypernationalism
              4. State-sponsored racial/ethnic bigotry
              5. Democracy weak and ineffective
              6. Blackshirts – paid paramilitary
                1. Fight socialist/communist organizations
            2. Mussolini convinced King Victor Emmannuel to appoint
              1. Had Blackshirts march to Rome – looks intimidating
              2. King timid man – afraid to call in military
              3. Faced financial problems
              4. Maybe financial plans would work
          4. New form of government – totalitarianism
            1. Uses modern technology, bureaucracy to control everyone
            2. Mussolini mild compared to Hitler/Stalin
            3. Imposed censorship, controlled culture
            4. Put dissidents in prison
            5. Propaganda to create cult of personality – larger than life
          5. Attempts to modernize Italy
            1. Built modern highways
            2. Sponsored literacy
            3. Fought Mafia
            4. Brought medicine/technology to backwards parts
            5. Made inefficient trains run on time
          6. Syndicalism – state-sponsored capitalism w/ no unions
            1. Corporate leaders must cooperate with government
          7. Many actually thought he was successful
          8. Depression made it hard to be dictatorial and successful
            1. Also…started adopting some of Hitler’s methods
              1. Master becomes the student
          9. Unite people to nationalistic cause – invades North Africa
        2. Germany
          1. Causes
            1. Governed by democratic regime – Weimar Republic
            2. Hyperinflation – wiped out value of German mark
            3. Burden of war payments
            4. Resentment of the Treaty of Versailles
            5. Crushed national pride
            6. Rise of extremist national parties
              1. Communist Party – left
          2. The Nazi Party
            1. anticommunist, antidemocratic
            2. Imitated Italian fascism
            3. Obsessed with racial purity
              1. Hated all minorities, especially subhuman Jews
            4. Tried and failed to take over in 1923 – Beerhall Putcsh
              1. Hitler writed Mein Kampf in jail
          3. Effect of the Depression
            1. 6 million – 40% unemployed
            2. Political boost to extremist parties
              1. Weimar Republic can’t govern conservatively
            3. Nazi Party becomes largest party in 1932
              1. Convinces Hindenberg to appoint him chancellor
          4. Hitler
            1. Uses burning of Reichstag building to justify war powers
              1. Enabling Act – March 1933
                1. Suspended Weimar Constitution for 4 years
            2. Actions as dictator
              1. Outlaws all political parties
              2. Took control of the press
              3. Banned labor unions
              4. System of state capitalism
              5. Built concentration camps for opponents/dissidents
              6. Established secret police – Gestapo
              7. Ended unemployment
                1. Public works projects/highways
                2. Arms production
              8. Act against Jews – “undesirables”
                1. Forced out of professions
                  1. law, civil service,university
                2. Businesses boycotted
                3. Nuremberg Laws – 1935
                  1. Stripped of citizenship
                  2. Forbade marriage/sex – Jews/non
        3. Totalitarianism on the Right and the Left
          1. Russian Marxist revolution and communism scared the bejeepers
            1. Groups of reactionary men organized to fight its spread
          2. Stalinism – Soviet communism
            1. Centralized control of the economy
            2. World leadership of international communist movement
            3. Forced collectivization of all farming
            4. promotion of atheism and control of organized religion
          3. Features of totalitarianism
            1. single leader with unquestioned authority
            2. single party in charge of all of government
            3. creation of police state to terrorize/control
            4. aggressive elimination of all opposition groups
    3. Primary form of organization becomes democratic state + capitalism
    4. Comparing Fascism and Totalitarianism
      1. Fascism vs. communism
        1. Fascists don’t want to eliminate private property, class distinctions
        2. Pushed for another identity – extreme nationalism based on racial identity
      2. Fascism is subset of totalitarianism
        1. Totalitarian dictator rules absolutely
        2. Fascists type of totalitarian rule
          1. Right wing
          2. Rely on traditional institutions/social distinctions to enforce rule
          3. Extreme nationalism based on racism
      3. Communism
        1. Extreme left-wing
        2. Seek to destroy traditional institutions and class distinctions
          1. But they want to retain power for themselves
        3. Not fascist, but just as militaristic and controlling
      4. Both use same tactics - totalitarianism
    5. Number of regimes try communism
      1. Communist economy
      2. Dictatorial political system
      3. Communism in the Soviet Union
        1. Initially moderate parliament Provisional Government took over
          1. Tried to set up democratic state – looked like French Revolution
          2. Alexander Kerensky – provisional government
            1. Ineffective – shared power with local soviets
              1. Soviets represented views of workers, peasants, soldie
            2. Also…wanted to continue war against Germany
              1. Peasants want to end the suffering of the war
            3. Too idealistic, didn’t gauge Russian people
            4. Did affirm natural rights – religious toleration, equality of cit
        2. But…Bolshevik Party promised land reform, economic stability, and peace
          1. Fought war of Bolsheviks (Communists) Reds vs. Whites (anti-com)
          2. Vladimir Lenin – April Theses – peace, land, power to soviets
          3. Lenin pulls out of WWI – Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
            1. Western Russia to Germany for cease fire
          4. Counterrevolutionary revolts across Russia
            1. Bolsheviks must fight nonstop skirmishes for 3 years
              1. Trotsky’s Red Army vs. the Whites
            2. Results of civil war
              1. West supported counterrevolutionaries = mistrust
              2. Bolsheviks now had a very powerful Red Army
        3. Lenin tries to modernize Soviet Union in Marxist fashion
          1. Problem…USSR not a capitalist gov’t – can’t seize factories
            1. Tries to nationalize assets/industries
          2. Initial programs actually result in decline
          3. Institutes New Economic Policy (NEP)
            1. Permitted some private ownership
              1. Led to increase in productivity
          4. Organized into a series of socialist republics under central gov’t
            1. 1923 renamed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
        4. Stalin takes over power – beats out Trotsky
          1. Hyper modernizes through Five-Year Plans
            1. Collectivization of agriculture – all peasants > state-run farm
              1. Huge collective farms worked by common farmers
              2. Farmers share the proceeds
              3. Millions of kulaks – peasants with more land
                1. Executed or deported
            2. Government controls countryside
            3. Money used to finance industrialization
              1. Five Year Plans successful
              2. Focus on heavy industry
          2. Negatives of collectivization
            1. famine – lack of worker initiative
            2. Became Great Purges – Stalin becomes paranoid
              1. Expulsion/execution of rivals
            3. Perceived dissidents sent to work camps – gulags
          3. Uses propaganda to glorify himself, mind-control nation
        5. Does the end justify the means?
      4. Communism in China
        1. Nationalists vs. Communists
          1. Early 1920s – Nationalist-Communist alliance drives out warlords
            1. Nationalists – Chiang Kai-shek
            2. Communists – Mao Tse-tung
          2. While Mao leads Long March north, Chiang consolidates power
            1. Founds Nanjing Republic
              1. Combination of Westernization and authoritarianism
              2. Sun’s Three People’s Principles
              3. Attempted constitutional gov’t, industrial economy
            2. Impossible to be successful with
              1. Backwardness
              2. Threat of Japanese imperialism
              3. Warlord anarchy
            3. Mao makes Communism attractive to peasants
    6. Third World nations experiment w/ variety of governments
      1. Dictatorship in Latin America
        1. Outside Influences on Latin America
          1. Prior to WWI, politically independent, but economically dependent
            1. US/Western investors controlled enterprises
            2. Economies based on export of 1 or 2 products – monoculture
              1. Chile – fertilizer, copper
              2. Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru – oil
              3. Argentina – beef
              4. Caribbean/Brazil – sugar
              5. Brazil – 75% of world’s coffee
          2. Foreigners allowed influence on local politics
            1. In exchange for capital and industrial knowledge
            2. Mass of population did work, but didn’t benefit
        2. The United States in Latin America
          1. France/Britain can’t invest in L. America, US can
          2. US views L. America as they’re sphere of influence
          3. To what extent did they control
            1. Gained territory – Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands
            2. Military presence – Panama
            3. Sponsored dictators for order – Venezuela, Cuba
          4. Good Neighbor Policy – Roosevelt – reduce US role
            1. Even pulled troops from Haiti – no troops in L. Amer
        3. Great Depression effects
          1. US inability to purchase exports killed L. America
            1. Remember they’re monoculture – dependent on exports
          2. Economic problems had negative effect on politics
          3. Long standing tradition of authoritarian rule
            1. Few if any genuine democracies in 1920s/1930s
            2. Mexico, Brazil, Argentina – all turn dictator
        4. Mexico
          1. Been in chaos since Benito Juarez died in 1872
          2. Rebels like Ponsho Villa and Emiliana Zapata fight dictator
            1. US helped but down rebels – tired of their raids
          3. Institutional Revolutionary Party – name not accurate
            1. Granted suffrage and right to strike
            2. But…actually ruled by an oligarchy that chose president
            3. Upper class prospers, country modernizes
            4. But…middle class small…lower class huge
          4. Lazaro Cardenas – president 1934
            1. Redistributes 40 million acres – land reform
            2. Nationalized oil industry – took from US
              1. Roosevelt did nothing – he’s a Good Neighbor
              2. Mexico pays US then forms – PEMEX
          5. Mexico emerges from revolution with one party system
            1. PRI – Partido Revolucionario Institucional
              1. Dominated politics for 70 years
        5. Brazil
          1. Before 1930, nation run by wealthy coffee growers
            1. Depression killed coffee industry
          2. 1930 Getulio Vargas takes over – mimics Fascist Italy/Germany
            1. Censored press
            2. Tortured political opponents
            3. Modernized Brazilian economy
              1. Diversified and freed from coffee reliance
              2. Brazil becomes L. America’s most industrialized nat
            4. Army forces out in 1945
        6. Argentina
          1. 1916 – Radical Party – Hipolito Irigoyen – labor party
            1. Reforms benefit peasants
            2. Labor unions become more active
          2. Landowners, upper class + military overthrow him in 1930
            1. Military tries to return to export-based economy
            2. Labor unrest increases – descamisados – “shirtless ones”
          3. After WWII – Evan and Juan Peron take over – appeal to lower
            1. Raised the salaries of the working class
            2. Government controlled press, denied civil liberties
            3. Ruled by military dictators after Peron
    7. Militarism in Japan
      1. Early 1920s Japan looks like its heading toward parliamentary capitalism
        1. Power of Diet increases
        2. Political parties more active/relevant
        3. Universal male suffrage
        4. Bill of rights
        5. Less censoring of media
        6. Economy continued to industrialize/modernize
      2. But…traditional forces still exist
        1. Upper classes maintains system of oligarchy
        2. Nationalism runs high
        3. Industrialization concentrated in small group of zaibatsu
          1. Four largest (Mitsubishi) controlled a ton
            1. 21% banking, 35% shipbuilding, 21% mining
          2. Wealth doesn’t benefit masses – controlled by elite few
          3. Direct link to government – government has vested interest
            1. Looks a bit like Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany
      3. Militarism and Invasion of Asia
        1. Major cause – Great Depression
          1. Exports drop 50%
          2. Nationalism skyrocketed, anti-Westernism grew
        2. Rise of Nationalism
          1. Kita Ikki – celebrity – right wing nationalist
            1. “Asia for Asians” – kick out Europeans
        3. Takes over Manchuria – Manchukuo
          1. Install Henry Pu-yi – remember him – last emperor of China
        4. Japan withdraws from League of Nations
        5. Prime Minister assassinated
        6. Emperor Hirohito controlled by military
        7. War starts in 1937 – New Order – Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
          1. Attacked in full force
          2. Committed dreadful atrocities
            1. “Rape of Nanjing” – 200,000 > 300,000 women/children
          3. Then push to Southeast Asia – push out French and British
    8. Rebuilding Europe after WWII
      1. Soviet Bloc – COMECON - Council for Mutual Economic Assistance
        1. Economies nationalized/centrally planned
        2. Collectivization under state control
        3. Massive industrialization
        4. “socialist division of labor” – every nation focuses in a few areas
        5. Soviet welfare systems
          1. education, medical care, pensions
        6. Poor quality consuper goods
        7. Focus on heavy industry/weapons
        8. Maintained through political repression
      2. Western Europe – Marshall Plan – European Recovery Plan
        1. A “miracle” – helped prevent the spread of communism
        2. W. Germany rose from ruins – European economic powerhouse
        3. Technical innovation – move to postindustrial world
        4. Put into place social welfare systems
        5. Created “third way” – blend of capitalism and social-welfare
        6. But…problems
          1. Germany refuses initially to acknowledge Holocaust
          2. French corrupt leaders, protests leads to 1968 revolution
          3. Mild authoritarian regimes continue Spain, Portugal, Greece
    9. Israel creates unique form of democracy
      1. Militaristic state run democratically that is huge human rights violator
      2. Must be violent toward poorly armed and minors to ensure security
    10. Authoritarianism and Dictatorship
      1. Latin America
      2. Middle East
        1. Monarchies – Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia
        2. Dictatorships – Syria, Lybia, Iraq
        3. Egypt/Turkey – need to combat Islamic extremism
          1. Heaviness of governmental control
            1. Elections not completely open
            2. Civil rights constrained
            3. Media not entirely free
            4. Israel democracy compromised by harshness in putting down Palestinians
    11. Southeast Asia after World War II
      1. Overview
        1. British gave up colonies relatively easily
          1. Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Hong Kong
        2. French/Dutch a little hesitant
        3. Militarism/authoritarianism dominant method of rule
          1. Cambodia
            1. Khmer Rouge – took power tried reverse industrialization
            2. Killed 2 million people, devastated economy, politics
          2. Philippines
            1. Ferdinand Marcos
              1. US backed
              2. Violated civil rights, extraordinarily corrupt
          3. South Korea ruled similarly to Philippines
          4. Myanmar and Thailand came under military rule
          5. Singapore
            1. Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew
              1. Pushes for conformity and tradition
              2. Devalues freedom and civil liberties
      2. Indonesia
        1. After WWII, Netherlands controlled Dutch East Indies – Indonesia
        2. Charismatic leader of Indonesian Nationalist Party
          1. Led war of liberation in 1945
          2. Afraid of Communist takeover, US convinced Dutch to give up
        3. New nation has diversity issues
          1. One of largest in world – linguistically, ethnically, religiously diff
        4. Tried governing democratically, but…too many groups
        5. Turned to authoritarian
          1. 1950s dissolved constitution for “Guided Democracy”
          2. Started to align himself with Communists
          3. 1965 army + Conservative Muslims overthrew Sukarno
            1. 500,000 killed – mostly Communists
            2. Sukarno eventually forced out of office
        6. 1967-1998 – military strongman General Suharto ruled
          1. Dictator with frequent human-rights abuses
          2. Focuses
            1. Economic growth
            2. Anticommunism
            3. Alliance with the United States
      3. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
        1. France tried to hold on for a decade after WWII
        2. Ho Chi Minh thinks he can gain independence
          1. Saw how US supported Philippines
          2. Proved himself against Japanese in WWII
            1. Vietnamese nationalism from under Marxist-taught Ho
            2. 1945 – Ho Chi Minh writes Declaration of Independence
          3. But…US supports France
            1. Important to make them happy – Germany more important
        3. Ho Chi Minh fights French w/ US backing
          1. Humiliated at Dien Bien Phu
          2. France wants out – signs treaty at Geneva Conference – 1954
            1. Nations of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam created
              1. Vietnam divided north/south – elections in a 2 years
        4. Ho Chi Minh thinks he’s getting an election – 2 years comes and passes
          1. South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem refuses elections
            1. He’d lose – he’s Catholic, US puppet (kindof)
          2. Ho Chi Minh had enough – moves South
            1. Viet Minh in the North
            2. Viet Cong communist resistance in the South
        5. US supports South for years, but its useless
          1. Guerilla warfare too successful vs. conventional
          2. Doesn’t have support of the masses
          3. Peasants hate South Vietnamese government
            1. US arranges for Ngo Dinh Diem’s overthrow
          4. US realizes they have no chance after Tet Offensive – 1968
            1. Gradually start pulling out
        6. 1975 Communist backed Ho Chi Minh captures South and unifies country
          1. Laos and Cambodia also fall to communists
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US History [1]
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US History [1]
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