1.

WHAT WAS THE EFFECT OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES?
The development of authoritarian states was the response the devastating consequence
of the First World War. The process of war justification of the war for the defeated countries
that partition German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires and created new states nation
of those states left people in the distress and despair. Before the war, people believed that
liberalism would improve the social and intellectual aspects. However, after the war, those
dreams were destroyed by the difficulties that they face. They found it hard to improve the
social condition and education if they still used democracy. Facing the difficulties, people
started to think that the authoritarian government would create a better society and well-being
for citizens. Also, there were many pieces of evidence that proved that it was better to use
authoritarian government. One of the most significant evidence is the centralized government
that helped the European countries survive during the war. During the war, the procedure of
the democracy was too slow to implement something in the emergency case. Seeing those
things, many countries especially the defeated one started to embrace authoritarian.
2. HOW DID THE ECONOMIC SITUATION IN THE INTER-WAR YEARS CONTRIBUTE TO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES?
The interwar period is the period between the World War1 and World War2. Talking
about the economy after post first World War 1, it was short-lived economic structure. The
economy gradually regressed and reached the lowest point during the Great Depression in the
1930s, creating the economic hardship and sinking people in distress and despair. This led to
the collapse of democracy. However, at the same period of time, Italian fascism and Germany
Nazism were still successful in conquering another state, not so struggling like the democratic
nation. This made their authoritarian regimes gain popularity. People from moderate classes
and supporters of democracy and constitutionalism started to change their beliefs to the
extreme right which is authoritarian. This is because they realized that the process of
democracy that their use cannot guarantee the security and the order of the nation like what
they used to believe before, hence it may be better for them to change.
3. WHICH COUNTRIES BECAME DICTATORSHIPS IN THE INTER-WAR YEARS?
During the interwar period, more and more nations started to reject democracy. Lenin
was one of the influential people who spread the norm of authoritarian. He said that liberal
democracy was one of the excuse of the higher class to rule over other people in the lower class.
This made many nations ranging from Russia, Italy, Turkey, Germany to Central European
nations and even in some states in Asia and Africa embraced dictatorship and became more
authoritarian. These following nations were the nations the became dictators and authoritarian
during the inter-war period.
 a. Russia: Bolshevik, which led by Lenin, took control and imposed the dictatorship idea
(proletariat) on people.
b. Italy: Mussolini became the dictator and rule the country with his fascist party.
c. Turkey: Mustafa increased use of dictator processes to change his country into the
modern secular state from the traditional Ottoman one.
d. Germany: Adolf Hitler and his national socialist party took control of the country
e. Spain: Francisco Franco ruled the country as dictator after winning the civil war.
f. Portugal: Antonio Salazar ruled the country with dictatorship
g. Africa: After freeing from the imperialist who took control of the country, they
started to create their own system of the government, which resembled the
authoritarian one as the result of traditional tribal systems.
h. Japan: Emperor Hirohito controlled Japan and started to shape it to become the
nation that was strong in military power and could conquer countries in Asia.
i. China: Even though the Guomindang government is the democracy, in theory, it is
actually authoritarian who declared that they would give liberty to people.
j. Some people even argued that Roosevelts state control in the USA was authoritarian.
4. WHAT EFFECT DID THE SECOND WORLD WAR HAVE ON THE ACCEPTANCE OF
AUTHORITARIANISM?
After the Second World War, more and more states started to embrace the idea of the
authoritarianism that even the nations that supposed to be totally liberal democracy started to
become authoritarian in some aspects. This is because the states wanted their own nations to be
safe and secure, thus started to accept and adopt some measures of authoritarian. Great Britain
imposed acts like Dora and some Restriction. The USA also imprisoned some of its population
like Japan- Americans to prevent the threat that those people can impose toward their country.
Most people in those countries accepted those ideas for the sake of their security and safety,
hence there was an increase in the acceptance of authoritarianism. The acceptance of
authoritarianism even pushed further in some state that they became a totalitarian government.
This was because some people believe that the totalitarian methods used by Stalin made USSR
win the war.
The acceptance of the authoritarianism did not only increase in Europe but also outside
the region. North Korea, after became independent, used the extreme communist to govern the
country. In China, Mao Zedong and his communist party defeated the Guomindang and used
communist to rule his country. Also, the colonies of France and Great Britain started to have
movements by nationalist for he independent using the method of authoritarian.
5. WHY DID DICTATORSHIPS FLOURISH IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY?
In the twentieth century, the military, social and economic instabilities of the period as
well as the external enemies that come through competition through the economic and politics
require them to have effective government to govern. The weakness of the democracy leads to
the collapse of the economic security and damaged the nation states. These factors altogether
push further the authoritarian regime and establish the model for the modern dictatorship.