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Ideas

The retreat of democracy
A decade after the great expansion of the right to vote

 

Siavash Davoodi
March 26, 2007
iranian.com

The end of the World War I saw a great deal of democratic expansion in terms of suffrage. Prior to the breakout of the War, the right to vote without distinction as to race, sex, belief, intelligence, or economic and social status was only given to the citizens of four nations in the world [1]. This number would grow to 23 within the first ten years after the end of the War [2]. It seemed for a brief moment that democracy had come out as a victor over dictatorship, capitalism and even imperialism. With the fall of the Austria-Hungary, Russian, German and Ottoman Empires, the road was paved for the spread and growth of global democracy.

Universal suffrage witnessed great expansion for several years to come. However, this great expansion was a very temporary one. Democracy was in retreat after a brief period of the expansion of voting rights. Several interconnected reasons worked hand in hand on political, social and economic levels. The most notable economic factor that played a role in the retreat of democracy was the stock market crash of October 1929, leading to the Great Depression. As international trade and personal income declined heavily, many were left unemployed and bankrupt.

This led to dreadful living conditions which only worsened the already atrocious situation that had been left behind by World War I. Social reasons for the contraction of democracy include the distress that had been left behind from the aftermath of the War itself and heightened by the Great Depression. During the years following the War, the European populace had a growing sense of disillusionment. Recovering from the war seemed impossible. Many people believed that the war was “the end of the world as they had known it” [3]. Politically, citizens believed that they had witnessed the end of capitalism and imperialism. This created enormous support for communist and socialist movements which had slowly been gaining popularity in places like Russia. In other nations such as Germany, people turned towards nationalist movements such as fascism.

The belief was that democracy was a hostile force due to the fact that it granted power to the ethnic minorities who “weakened and destabilized" [4] states. Both socialist and fascist philosophies would gain enormous support in Europe and strongly impact, and in many ways oppose the growth of democracy. The impact of this quick expansion and contraction would be one that would have a significant affect: the political, economic and social state of affairs in Europe for the following decade would ultimately trigger the eruption of World War II in 1939. It would not be until the end of the Second World War that democracy would re-emerge in Europe as an influential political system. In this paper, I will examine the reasons why democracy was in retreat only a decade after the great expansion of the right to vote.

I will do this by taking a close look at the events that took place in Europe during the postwar period. The combination of social, political and economical influences led to the unavoidable retreat of democracy. It is essential to look at specific cases within countries which were affected most directly by the war in order to understand why further expansion of democratic ideas came to a halt for the time being. The arguments in this paper will be based on examples provided from postwar Russia and Germany. I will start by examining the social and economic trauma caused by World War I in the Russian state and the rise of the communist government.

At that point, I will take a closer look at the social and political effects of the Great Depression in Germany which lead to the abolishment of democracy and its replacement by a Nazi dictatorship. Finally, I will explain how these examples contributed to the retreat of democracy after the brief period of expansion. I aim to clarify how the combination of social and economic factors created by the postwar condition of Europe led to radical political change in the states that were most directly affected by it. In doing so, it will be lucid at the end of this paper that the retreat of democracy at the end of the 1920s was an inevitable cause of the economic and social distress which was left behind by the Great War.

Postwar Russia is a prime example of the social trauma. The decade that followed the War was a very grim and unpleasant one for Europe. Millions of soldiers had died in combat from both sides of the battle and even more were left wounded and injured. Many of these veterans were incurably wounded and served as a reminder of the years of pain and agony that had just passed. The social optimism that had been produced by the beginning of the twentieth century was nowhere to be seen. It was replaced by private and public mourning all over Europe and much of the world. Russia was no exception to this grief and, to some extent, was affected by it the most. The greatest political transformation in Russia occurred during the final years of the War as a result of weak political leadership.

Although Russia had enjoyed several early victories, the countries armed forces faced several defeats in the first two years of the war. Soldiers were being sent into battles without arms and ammunition due to the shortage of supplies [5]. It was assumed that soldiers would be able to equip themselves with arms recovered from fallen soldiers on the battlegrounds. During this short time alone, two million Russian Soldiers were killed or wounded [6]. These military issues served as a reflection of what was happening at home, and were hardly the entire problem. Economically, factories in the empire were slowly losing productivity as the railway system proved to be insufficient for the transportation and development of necessary goods. Short supply created rapid inflation in the prices of commodities. Supplies ran so short that even those that could afford goods were not guaranteed the opportunity to buy them. Many Russian cities were eventually faced with famine.

It quickly became evident that the Russian economy was falling apart under the pressures of wartime demand. This had extremely negative social implications all over the Russian state. Crime, prostitution and theft became commonplace under the strains put on the citizens because of the lack of goods. The population quickly lost satisfaction with the way that the War was being handled by the imperial family. This had a very negative affect on the popularity of the Tsar among the masses. These were all the building blocks for the approaching Russian Revolution.

On February 22, 1917, the workers of the Putilov Plant, a machine-building complex in St. Petersburg, announced an immediate strike. On February 23, several rallies and riots took place under the slogan of “Peace, Land, Bread” [7]. It did not take very long for these demonstrations to become politically driven and lead to bloodshed. Within days, the Tsar was forced to step down from the throne and power was handed to the provisional government. It seemed that a victory was at hand for democracy. However, this would be a very temporary solution to the problems which had originally caused the February Revolution. The provisional government did accomplish the organization and holding of elections but failed to end Russia's involvement in World War I, which led to its declining popularity among the Russian population. This continued involvement would prove to be very costly for the military and the provisional government. Although the Soviets had initially supported the government, their support gradually deteriorated as no improvements were made to living and working conditions.

This became a big challenge to the authority of the provisional government as the Soviets had the direct support of the workers and the Russian military. A very brief period of democracy was cut short by the October Revolution of 1917, in which the Bolsheviks [8] overthrew the provisional government. This marked the beginning of the Russian Civil War in which the Red Army would go on to defeat the Anti-Bolsheviks forces of the White Army and establish the Soviet Union in 1922. It is evident from these happenings that although democracy was enjoying worldwide expansion during the decade following the First World War, it was by no means the most dominant and desirable system. Although certain nations were taking up more democratic practices and extending voting rights to all of their adult citizens, others were simply not in positions favorable to the creation and preservation of democracy.

Personal liberty and freedom of political choice are promises given by the democratic system. However, when one is hungry for bread, out of work and exhausted by war, it is hard to not give up such rights. The Great Depression that would begin in October, 1929 [9] would only cause additional negative impacts on the expansion of democracy and cause greater retreat of democratic ideas from numerous other nations.

Although the Central Powers were defeated in the World War, the aftermath of the War in Germany was not as devastating and immediate as it was in Russia. Just after the end of the War [10], the 1871 Constitution of Germany [11] was revised to make the empire a parliamentary democracy known as Weimar Republic. The road to recovery for Germany was a rough one. Economically, the country was left in devastation at the end of World War I with significant infrastructure damage and large outstanding reparations payments to be made to the Allied Nations.

The newly found democratic republic was also under pressure from both left and right-winged extremists. Extremists from the left believed that the government had betrayed the proletariat by stopping a communist revolution [12], while right winged radicals were in support of returning to the old authoritarian form of government which had existed under the old constitution.  Matters only got worse when the political differences between the two extremes ended in acts of violence and murder from both sides. Uprisings and staged Coupes threatened the republic and caused considerable economic and political instability. However, by 1925, after several years of turmoil, a period of relative stability (both political and economical) seemed to have begun [13].

During this time, a new currency was introduced by the German government as a response to the hyperinflation [14] that had been left by the period of economic slump. In an effort to stabilize the damaged economy, government spending was reduced and taxes were raised. This was meant to give the central power more wealth while maintaining (or even raising) the value of the currency. However, it was not long before the stock market crash of 1929 that the support for the Weimar Republic would begin deteriorating as Germany once again fell into a state of instability and vulnerability. The Great Depression which swept the world in the 1930s had a profound impact on the Weimar Republic as it led to increased demands for Germany to pay debts owed to the United States.

However, many Germans saws the Treaty of Versailles as degrading to the German people as it justified the French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr Region. This led the general population to lean towards more nationalist and authoritarian movements creating a social distress. By March, 1933, the Nazi party of Germany had become the most powerful party in the country, holding 288 out of 647 seats in Reichstag (German Parliament) [15]. The newly appointed Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, with the support of the Centre Party and German National People's Party, passed the enabling act, giving his cabinet legislative powers for a period of four years. Hitler blamed the republic and democracy as the cause for the ‘oppressive’ terms in the Treaty of Versailles [16]. Using the power that the enabling act gave him, Hitler dissolved communist and democratic opposition within the German government. 

Like the replacement of democracy by communism in Russia, Hitler had used his political and persuasive power to transform Germany from a liberal democracy to a Nazi dictatorship. This would enable him to exercise unconditional authority over the German state and begin a campaign to subjugate neighboring states. This would cause the breakout of World War II in 1939.  

The reason that democracy was in retreat a short decade after the expansion of the right to vote was in large part due to the social and economic misery that was left behind by the political decisions made during World War I. At the end of the war, it seemed as if democracy had come out as victorious over imperialism and capitalism. For a period of ten years there was a great expansion in universal suffrage. Democratic nations were rising all over the world. Ideas which were previously rejected by traditional forms of government now made their way into every day life. This was largely due to the rapid economic and cultural growth of the “roaring twenties” [17] in North America. It would seem as if this expansion stopped where the Great Depression picked up. Countries that were involved in the World War were the countries that were affected the most by the Great Depression.

Poor living conditions, low wages and availability of product goods as well as huge national debts all contributed in the downward spiral that most of these nations were in, especially the countries of the Central Powers. These terrible living conditions affected the mental and physical well being of many people in what would later be called the “Lost Generation” [18]. The hope and optimism that the War Generation once had was replaced with grief and a sense of disillusionment. This played out in different ways. In some countries, people began to resent nationalism because they believed this was the cause of the war. In others, it was believed that the lack of national unity had resulted in defeat. Economically, the lack of jobs and low value of currency made it increasingly difficult to maintain a standard of living and politically, radical movements began to arise, creating extremist governments in the form of communism and fascism.

In conclusion, the decline in the expansion of democracy can be exemplified in the rise of turmoil in Russian politics and in the dominance of nationalism over Germany. The greatest forces of anti-democratic movements which came about before and during the depression were communism and fascism. These alternate systems of governance were able to undermine democratic values and sway the minds of the war weary citizens of Europe. Ultimately, War was the outcome of these radical movements. It was not until the end of World War II in 1945 that democracy would defeat fascism. A long campaign in the form of the Cold War would then bring about the victory of democracy over communism. Today, democracy is the dominant form of political governance in the world. Comment

Notes
[1] Wikipedia: Universal suffrage in the world. Australia, New Zealand, Finland, and Norway were the only nations in the world to grant their citizens Universal Suffrage until 1918.

[2] For location and list of these 23 nations, refer to Wikipedia: Government in the 1920s

[3] Wikipedia: Austro-Hungarian Empire

[4] Wikipedia: Nazis: Nazi Theory Historical background

[5] Wikipedia: Russian Revolution of 1917

[6] Walter C. Opello, Jr. and Stephen J. Rosow, The Nation-State and Global Order: A Historical Introduction to Contemporary Politics, Chapter 6 (The Ant liberal State)

[7] History Encyclopedia Online: Russian Revolution

[8] The Bolshevik were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party of Russia. (Web):

[7] Economic History: The 1929 Stock Market Crash

[8] October 28, 1918 -- Wikipedia: Weimar Republic

[9] Wikipedia: Constitution of the German Empire

[10] Wikipedia: Spartacist uprising

[11] Schools History: Streseman

[12] Hyperinflation: Inflation growing at a very high rate in a very short time.

[13] Wikipedia: German election, 1933

[14] Wikipedia: Weimar Republic

[15] Wikipedia: Roaring Twenties

[16] Wikipedia: Lost Generation

[17] Wikipedia: Roaring twenties

[18] Wikipedia: Lost Generation

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