1. Totalitarian Rulers in Europe

2. Past IB Exam Questions
A purge is a necessary characteristic of the single party state. To what extent do any TWO single party states, each chosen from a different region, illustrate this contention?
Assess the success and failure of TWO rulers of single party regimes, each chosen from a different region, in solving the social and economic problems of their countries.
Analyze conditions that led to single party states during the twentieth century

3. More IB exam questions
Compare and contrast the economic and social policies of Mao and Stalin.
Analyze the methods used and the conditions which helped the rise to power of ONE ruler of a single party state.
Examine the status of women in TWO single party states, each chosen from a different region.

4. Totalitarianism Extraordinary powers of the leader
Importance of an exclusivist ideology
Existence of a single mass party
Secret policy prepared to use terror to remove all domestic opposition
Monopoly on communications media as well as over the educational system
Determination to change basic social, artistic and literary values

5. Can also include… Purges State economic planning
Degree of private life allowed

6. Totalitarian rulers…
Controlled major decisions without consultation with others
Did not need to take into account customs or laws
Unaffected by appeals to conscience or pity
Not restrained by official ideology… the ruler decided the ideology and could change it at any time, sometimes reversing what had previously been official ideology
“No discussion… only obedience” Mussolini

7. Rulers came to power…
Pointed out dangers of class struggles and then “solved” the problem
Blamed the nation’s problems on forces outside the country
Violence or life of action was a prominent characteristic

8. Totalitarianism as religion
Charismatic leaders
Texts
Disciples
Ceremonies
Processions
True believers with indisputable truth… the “chosen” who belonged to the “right” group or race
Nonbelievers and nonfavored groups who needed to be eradicated
Young people to be indoctrinated in the new “religion” so it could continue indefinitely

9. Totalitarian government
Constitutions which were either ignored or protected the government (not the rights of citizens against the government)
Claimed to rule for the people
Held elections or plebiscites
Ultra paternalistic
People are either too irrational or too ignorant to be entrusted with self-government
Demanded positive support… not enough to simply not oppose the government

10. Developments that made totalitarianism possible
Mass circulation newspapers
Modern communication methods… telegraph, telephones, radio, movies
Modern transportation… car, airplane, railroads
Compulsory education

11. Fascism Combination of… Nationalism Corporativism (economic)
Expansionism
Anti-Communist
Elements of private property
State over the individual
Social programs/welfare

12. Mussolini Quotes
Fifty thousand guns are better than the support of five million voters.
Often I would like to be wrong, but so far it has never happened & events turn out just as I foresaw.
The individual exists only insofar as he is subordinated to the interest of the state.
All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.

13. Mussolini—the Forum & Via Dei Fori Imperiali

14. 1938 10 out of 27 European countries were democratic
Great Britain, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden

15. Authoritarian regimes
Concerned with maintaining status quo
Small elitist group… landowners for example
Wanted to avoid agrarian reforms of the USSR
Political rights were severely limited but did not try to control all aspects of a person’s life
Did not glorify war or class struggle
Hungary, Portugal, Spain (Franco), Poland

16. SOURCES
The European history Series: Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini—Totalitarianism in the 20th Century by Bruce Pauley
Years of compiled notes