Political systems in Europe

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Political systems in Europe

• European dictatorships between Fascism, Socialism
  and Democracy
• 31.10.2007
• Prof. Vesa Vares

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Dictatorships General

• general rule, various systems
• authoritarian Conservatism versus parliamentary
  Conservatism
• "the grey zone" and demarcation line towards
  Fascism
• permanent system or passing strong man
• pre-1914 world, fear and experience of
  revolution

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Austria

• general and very specific problems
• rump of an Empire the missing mission
• problem of nationality and idea of Anschluss
• "a state without citizens", "a republic without
  republicans"
• Danubian identity Prussian barbarism
• 1920's still relatively peaceful

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• SPÖ
• radical version of Socialism "Red Vienna",
  Austromarxism, Otto Bauer, 1927 demonstrations
• pro-Anschluss until 1933
• loss of strength in the 1920's
• Christian Social Party
• former populist party, now very Conservative and
  Catholic

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• dominated the provinces
• the old mission prevailing, anti-Prussianism
  Ignacy Seipel ("Prelat ohne Milde")
• Heimwehr
• troublesome Legitimists
• radicalization towards reaction Dollfuss, errors
  of the past 150 years
• sympathy of and towards Mussolini Hitler the
  enemy

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• pan-Germans
• 1934 crisis
• authoritarian rule SPÖs rebellion defeated
• National Socialist coup defeated
• semi-Fascist system against domestic Nazis
• Ständestaat
• corporatism and Catholicism Austrofaschismus,
  Clericofascism

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• different occupation (estates), politics to the
  Patriotic Front, equal civil rights social
  harmony as a goal
• Germanism but not pan-Germanism
• repression and no real identification
• 1938 Anschluss was welcomed by many

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Hungary

• even more pronounced nostalgia for pre-1914 times
• Peace Treaty of Trianon as the national tragedy
  the Rump Hungary "nem, nem, soha!"
• foreign political isolation
• Communist coup and era under Bela Kun in 1919

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• Regent Horthy ("Admiral on Horseback"), empty
  throne
• authoritarian National Unity Party, manipulation
  of elections other parties much smaller
  (Socialists about 10 )
• election laws not totally democratic and became
  even more reactionary in late 1930's
• stable Governments, aristocratic rule

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• Prime Minister Gömbös 19321936 the radical,
  semi-Fascist experiment
• National Socialists in the late 1930's however,
  old Conservatives prevailed

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Rumania

• one of the winners of 1918 an enlarged state
• "Western" ideals of the previous elite
• unstable parties and Governments, manipulated
  elections never lost by the Government
• Liberal Party (right-wing)
• Agrarian Party (more "Western")

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• King's position from the shame (Madame Lupescu)
  to absolute power
• against National Socialism
• 1939 Front of the National Re-birth
• peculiar right-wing radicalism Iron Guard
• essentially National Socialist, but very
  religious
• second-generation intellectuals Codreanu Zelea

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• also anti-Liberal and anti-Capitalist
• the unspoiled Rumanian peasant
• Greenshirts
• very violent and anti-state also persecuted by
  the state
• 16 in the late 1930's

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Bulgaria

• one of the defeated powers in 1918
• radical reaction Agrarian (BANU) Government
  19191923
• Stambuliski, Left-wing Populism
• as violent as the others
• military coup in 1923 and unstable conditions in
  the 1920's
• in the mid-1930's a royal dictatorship (King
  Boris)

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Yugoslavia

• Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
• or an enlarged Serbia?
• hostility between nationalities ("Eastern" Serbs,
  "Western" Croats and Slovenes)
• Serbian Radical Party
• Croatian Agrarian Party
• Slovenian Populist Party
• royal dictatorship 1929 and later
• National Yugoslav Party

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Poland

• democracy until 1926 not a stable one
• powerful Sejm weak President
• position of Pilsudski
• national minorities and hostile neighbours
• 1926 coup supported by the Left-wing rule of
  Pilsudski
• Sanacja resembled Horthy and Ständestaat
• conciliation with high nobility
• non-Parliamentary Bloc,manipulated elections

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• opposition mainly from the National Democratic
  Party (Catholicism, middle class) and small
  Fascist groups
• 1935 Constitution
• Presidential power powerless Sejm
• "God and History"
• repression but not a German style

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Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania

• development like in Poland from extreme
  parliamentarism to strong-man rule
• economic depression
• safeguard against radical right
• Konstantin Päts in Estonia "centrist
  dictatorship"?

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Czechoslovakia

• democracy and stable party structure almost too
  stable
• Agrarian Party always in the Government,
  supported by the business
• National Socialists Liberal, Conservative,Nation
  alist Masaryk and Benesh
• Social Democrats
• Communists more support than elsewhere

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• evenly supported between 15 and 25
• radical right National Democratic Party
  (National Unity Party), only 46
• minority problems
• Germans Heimatfront, Henlein
• Slovaks People's Party, Hlinka, Tiso both
  Left-wing and Right-wing Populism

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Spain

• before Franco both dictatorship and democracy,
  right-wing and left-wing rule
• 19231931 Primo de Rivera
• 1931 republic coup attempts from Left and Right
• Anarchists social radicalism with individual
  freedom and trade unionism against Communism

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• traditional, aristocratic, Catholic and
  military-orientated Conservatism
• Falangist movement semi-Fascism
• election 1936 Left-wing victory radicalization
  on both sides Franco uprising Civil War until
  1939
• Falangist rule after 1939 Conservative values
  with a Fascist facade

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Portugal

• republic already 1911
• dictatorship of Salazar, Estado Novo
• not very totalitarian rather "bureaucratic" and
  undramatic than pompous "civil servant
  dictators"
• pro-British tradition and rejection of
  anti-Semitism

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Greece

• on the victorious side in the World War
• Liberal but extremely Nationalist and partly
  Populist rule of Venizelos
• General Metaxas dictatorship in the 1930's
  "royal bureaucratic dictatorship"
• some sort of mass mobilization, pro-British
  foreign policy, no anti-Semitism, Orthodox Church
  values, social welfare, criticism of "plutocrats"

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