Authoritarian Regimes and Mass Mobilisation Flashcards
Why has historiographical analysis pre-1980s been characterised as overly simplistic? (3)
- Denied masses much agency
- Presented them predominantly as victims
- Tried to atribute almost entirely to terror and fear
Why has the post-1980s turn challenged these prior conventional narratives? (2)
- Democratisation of history
- Emphasis on paying attention to popular opinion/focus on ‘from below’ history
What have post-1980s historians suggested is a reason for the over-simplistic analysis of early historians and culture?
Uncomfortable for people to admit that the masses actually did support these regimes
What does Fitzpatrick’s Everyday Stalinism challenge by focusing on how those living in the USSR adapted/tried to lead a normal life?
The idea that the notion of consent in these situations is even relevant to historians
What does Hannah Arendt argue totalitarian movements are in her 1951 Origins of Totalitarianism?
mass organisations of atomised, isolated individuals
What does Hannah Arendt argue totalitarian movements demand in her 1951 Origins of Totalitarianism?
Total, unrestricted, unconditional, and unalterable loyalty
Who does Hannah Arendt argue can be attracted by the momentum of totalitarianism itself in her 1951 Origins of Totalitarianism?
Only the mob and the elite
How does Hannah Arendt argue the masses have to be won by totalitarian movements in her 1951 Origins of Totalitarianism?
By propaganda
Why does Hannah Arendt argue modern dictatorships differ from past tyrannies in her 1951 Origins of Totalitarianism?
Because they use terror to rule masses rather than just to get rid of/frighten opponents
When can social consent be said to be present?
if most of the society/popular opinion considered the regime to be acceptable
Why do we need to dismantle unhelpful/oversimplified binary pairings when discussing authoritarian regimes?
- No regime could ever command complete/total consent
- Variation within consent
- Most relatively ambivalent/fell somewhere between the two
Why does support for figureheads count as social consent?
They encapsulated the vision of the regimes/movements and their most important policies
Why should we as historians not completely discount social consent completely in our study of authoritarian regimes and mass mobilisation as Fitzpatrick suggests?
Regimes themselves cared about state of popular opinion and responded carefully to moods/beliefs
During the Cold War, what did totalitarianism come to be designated as a political system characterised by? (5)
One-party rule
Monolithic ideology
Centralised control of means of communication
High degrees of state intervention in the economy
Reliance on coercion and terror
Why is totalitarianism purely a political concept making it unhelpful?
It autonomises political power rather than seeing it in its articulation w the economic and social structure
What has totalitarianism often been defined in opposition to?
What liberal values are
Why is it problematic that totalitarianism has often been defined in opposition to what liberal values are?
Doesn’t account for:
- idea that seeds of fascism may have been sown in the preceding liberal era
- idea of structural similarities bw liberal-democratic/fascist systems in their economic basis
Why is totalitarianism as a concept not nuanced enough so as to be artificially anachronistic?
- Reality from bottom down so different from regime to regime
- Lived experience doesn’t quite fit - were not totalising completely
Why is it important not to overstate the role of terror?
Because the balance of terror and coercion was important and varied between groups
Propaganda very important
What is Weber’s charismatic authority characterised by? (2)
- Centred around a leader or person as having extraordinary qualities that elevates them over others
- Often they declare a mission or vision to overcome supradimensional crises/emergencies
Why is Weber’s idea of charismatic authority almost by definition temporary authority?
Either completion/failure to complete the projected task/vision undermines the figure’s authority
What sort of legitimacy did regimes need to generate mass support?
Both domestic and international as the two reinforced each other
What form of legitimacy was more important to regimes: domestic or international?
Domestic legitimacy > international UNTIL the point where lack of international legtimacy causes intervention in domestic affairs
What turned out to be one of the fatal flaws of both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy?
charismatic authority
According to Gellately’s Backing Hitler (2001), when was consent for Hitler/Nazi’s not in doubt from?
1933
What is the historical significance of Gelatelly’s claim that consent for Hitler/Nazis not in doubt from 1933?
It followed two elections in 1932 where the Nazis were massively popular and Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor but also the beginning of terror and removal of alternatives
What did Eric Johnson’s 1993 survey of the elderly population living in Cologne show?
Majority had supported the regime (55%) at the time
What is the historical significance of Johnson’s conclusion that the majority of Cologne had supported the regime at the time?
Of major cities, Cologne had given Nazis lowest amount of electoral support, lower than national percentage too - suggests mass support and consent for Nazis
What was the gender split in Eric Johnson’s 1993 survey of elderly pop living in Cologne?
71% men vs 47% women said had supported
What is the historical significance of the 71% men vs 47% women gender split in Johnson’s 1993 Cologne survey?
The typical denouncer was male, middle-aged and middle-class - comparatively low rate of female denunications
In Owing’s study what did a middle-class woman, the wife of a prominent German historian recall about popular opinion during the Nazi era?
“on the whole, everyone felt well” and that “Wanted only to see the good” and “simply shoved aside” the rest
What did the middle-class woman in Owing’s study suggest most Germans tried to do?
tried at the very least, even when they didn’t agree 100% with the Third Reich or with National Socialism, to adapt themselves’
Did ordinary people often act as denouncers during the Nazi years?
Not really - only c. 1-2% of people in Krefeld during Nazi years acted as denouncers
Who was the most emotionally invested group in the Nazi era and why?
Youth as they were subject to indoctrination from an impressionable age
What is an example of a non-conformist youth group that formed during the Nazi era suggesting variation within consent even in this most impressionable group?
The Edelweisspiraten
What did the diary of Victor Klemper, a Lutheran of Jewish descent, describe many middle-class Germans in Dresden doing?
How they would express their disdain at the mistreatment of the Jews but be supportive of other policies such as 1936 remilitarisation of the Rhineland
What did the diary of Victor Klemper, a Lutheran of Jewish descent, describe two students who were in his opinion “completely anti-Nazi” doing?
Describing secret trial/execution of 2 young aristocratic women in Berlin they were not troubled/alarmed that had been denied essential legal rights
What did Bishop von Galen of Muenster speak out against in 1941?
The murder of the disabled
Despite speaking out against the murder of the disabled, what did Bishop von Galen of Muenster do?
He still proclaimed his belief in the Fuhrer/war vs Soviet Union
What did the opposition from ordinary people and the Church to the T4 programme result in?
It stopped being public and killings took place in secret
What is the historical significance of the period 1939-41 being characterised by German success?
This bolstered Hitler’s popularity and thus also the regimes
In internal reports from the Government, what does the President of Swabia note that German victories in the early war years do?
Put most Germans in a “jubilant, victory mood” which fostered a hostile environment for criticism
When did many German actually criticise Hitler for taking them to war, his failure to make a peace treaty by 1943, and his extermination of Jews?
Retrospectively
What had even Nazi party members begun to avoid by the end of the war?
The ‘Heil Hitler’ greeting
What were people doing at the beginning of the war that they had move away from by the end?
Giving their children Germanic names
