By Gilbert Pleuger
new perspective Vol 4, No 3
The twentieth century will be remembered for the two world wars. It will be remembered, also, as a century when dictators shaped events.
Dictatorship and despotism are concepts which have had currency in the West as long as man has engaged in political thought and Aristotle, The Politics, and Plato, The Republic, identified key elements of these concepts in the fourth century bc. In the Roman Empire dictatorship was established during a time of emergency when the Senate appointed a man to hold absolute power for a period of seven years: on the termination of this period constitutional republican rule was reinstated.
Since the transformation of political expectations after the French Revolution, dictatorship has lost the more benign associations of classical times and currently has a more sinister meaning. In contemporary thought, dictatorship refers to a form of government where one person is so dominant that there is no effective opposition because there are no alternative power centres and in which the person’s power is unlimited by the rule of law. The following discussion will indicate, however, that the more complete dictatorships, and there are degrees of dictatorship, also embody another concept, totalitarianism. A list of dictators in the twentieth century would include Stalin, Hitler and Mao Zedong but should it include, also, Mussolini, Franco and Horthy of Hungary?
Legality and de facto power
When discussion moves away from bald categorisation a more complicated picture emerges. There are many differences, as well as similarities, in the two contemporary dictatorships of Hitler and Stalin. Hitler’s power in the 1930s was initiated legally when he was appointed Chancellor by President Hindenburg and the extension of his power by the Enabling Act, after the stage-managed Reichstag fire, was achieved constitutionally. The elimination of the SA, an alternative power centre was completed by the ‘Night of the Long Knives’ in 1934 and Hitler’s appointment as President and Commander in Chief was achieved in 1934. Dr Feuchtwanger argues in this issue of new perspective that the radicalisation of German political life was incrementally achieved and Hitler's unrivalled hold on power was furthered by foreign policy successes and the promotion of Nazi thought. Stalin’s position as dictator was achieved and sustained in different ways. His position of undisputed power was gained gradually, only after the defeat of his rival, Trotsky, but, above all, by the development of a clientage among party members by careful appointment to party offices throughout the USSR, appointments made through his position as General Secretary of the party. Despite the transformation of the USSR in the late 1920s and 1930s through heroic achievements of collectivisation and the first and second Five Year Plans which could be expected to enhance Stalin’s standing, the Red Army, created by Trotsky, remained a potential danger to Stalin until between 1937-8 at least 20 per cent of army officers were eliminated during the purges. While, on the face of it, Stalin’s power rested on democratic support for him and his policies in the hierarchy of district, regional, republic and union Soviets, in fact the domination of these bodies by party members, managed by the party apparatus, of which Stalin was the head, provided the core of his power.
Hitler and Stalin achieved their dictatorship after some time in power. Mussolini, like Hitler, was appointed to his first position in the state, Prime Minister, in 1924 by the King but, as Professor Pollard indicated in the last issue of new perspective (December 1998), alternative power centres, the Monarchy and the Church, remained independent from Mussolini’s power structure. Fascist ideology was even more of a ragbag of negatives than Hitlerism and the more innovative feature, corporatism, introduced from 1928, lacked sustained effectiveness. Mussolini’s greatest contribution to Italian life was a style of leadership, marked by activism. The limitations of his power were indicated by his recognised need for an agreement with the Catholic Church (the Lateran Treaty, 1929) and his eventual removal from power by the King in 1943. In Spain, General Francisco Franco’s power initially rested on his command of the Nationalist army during the war with the Republican forces. The anti-republican Nationalist ideology was buttressed by the support of Spain’s traditional institutions, the Monarchy and the Church. When the Republicans were defeated, in 1939, Franco retained the singular position of authority but he never stepped outside the ideology formed round the Nationalist cause.
Dictatorship and totalitarianism
These examples point to the need to link dictatorship to another concept, totalitarianism, in order to make surer assessments of the completeness of modern dictatorships. The essence of totalitarianism is the harnessing of instruments for control in the modern state with a strong ideology. Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski in Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (1956) proposed that totalitarianism included:
a) An ideology to which adherence is demanded.
b) A mass party which is interwoven with a state bureaucracy.
c) Exclusive control of the armed forces.
d) Exclusive control over the media and mass communication.
e) A secret police force.
f) Central control over the economy.
It is the use of these criteria, together with the histories of the rulers additions of power, which enable students to make a sound evaluation of the date of commencement and the extent of, or limitations to, dictatorships in the twentieth century.
http://www.history-ontheweb.co.uk/concepts/dictatorship43.htm
Key Words: Origins and Development of Authoritarian and Single-Party States: Nelson/IB History
Dictatorship-
“A ______controlled by ____ person or a small group of people. In this form of government the power rests with ______person. Such power is often obtained ______. A dictator usually takes away much of people's freedom.” [1]
“In contemporary usage, dictatorship refers to an ______form of absolute rule by leadership ______by law, constitutions, or other social and political factors within the state.”[2]
Autocracy-
An autocracy is a form of government in which ____ person possesses ______power. An autocrat is a person (such as a monarch) ruling with ______authority. The term autocrat is derived from the word autokratōr (αὐτοκράτωρ, lit. "self-ruler", or "one who rules by himself").[3]
Authoritarian States-
Single Party States-
coup d'état [(kooh day- tah )] -
A ______and decisive ______of governmental power by a strong ______or political group. In contrast to a ______, a coup d'état, or ______, does not involve a mass uprising. Rather, in the typical coup, a small group of politicians or generals arrests the incumbent leaders, ______the national radio and television services, and proclaims itself in power. Coup d'état is French for “______of the state” or “______to the government.” [4]
Right-wing Dictatorship-
A ______dictatorship (sometimes also referred to as a rightist dictatorship) is an authoritarian ______whose policy could be called rightist. There are various definitions of the term "rightist" though. The broadest one includes all dictatorships that do not consider themselves ______. Those are usually pro-capitalist in economic matters and conservative in ______ones.
The term ______dictatorship is sometimes used (mostly by its opponents) ______with the right-wing one. It is commonly accepted that ______and _____ were ruled by fascist governments at some points of their history.[5]
Left-wing Dictatorship-
Characteristics of a Totalitarian State:
Source: Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (Harvard, 1956) by Carl Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski.
Seven characteristics of a totalitarian state:
1. ______dictatorship.
2. ______of the leader
3. “An elaborate ______, consisting of an official body of ______covering all vital aspects of man's existence to which everyone living in that society is supposed to adhere.”
4. A system of ______that is projected through control of a party ______or secret ______.
5. A ______of control by the party and the government of the ______and all cultural activity.
6. Control of ______aspects of citizens' lives through ______, ______, ______organizations.
7. ______control and ______of the entire ______.
[1] http://www.servinghistory.com/topics/Dictatorship
[2] http://www.reference.com/browse/dictatorship
[3] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary
[4] http://dictionary.reference.com
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_dictatorship