An Introduction to Authoritarian and Single-

Party States IB History: Authoritarian and Single-Party

States

About the Unit• Authoritarian/Single-Party State = A government

controlled by a single political party and/or regimes that defend their political or economical control by keeping all of society passive.

• Authoritarian/Single-Party States developed and operated throughout the 20th Century (1900-2000) and we will study three examples.

• Hitler and Nazi Germany (Fascism)

• Mao Zedong and China (Communism)

• Stalin and the Soviet Union (Communism)

• We will study these examples through four areas:

• Origins (how did they begin)

• Ideology and Nature (what beliefs did they promote)

• Establishment (how did they get power)

• Policies and their impact (what they did and the effects)

Terminology/Definitions

• Political Ideology - A set of beliefs on which political leadership is followed

• Communism - Political ideologies that are opposed to capitalism and favor collective ownership of wealth

• Marxism - Belief in a revolution of social class struggle that would eventually develop a classless society (no rich, no poor, only eqaul)

• Leninism - Belief in the revolution described in Marxism through leadership of a single political party (The Communist Party)

• Stalinism - The description of Joseph Stalin’s rule over the Soviet Union as not congruent with Marxism or Leninism because of the abuse of power by the Communist Party and placing the national interests of the Soviet Union before a world-wide class struggle

• Fascism - A revolutionary form of ultra-nationalism used to redefine a nation through which many social organizations that are independent from the state are destroyed or marginalized

• Nazism - An ultra-nationalism political movement led by the Nazi Political Party in Germany, to redefine the nation in response to the results of WWI and the Great Depression

Karl Marx: Creator of

Communist ideology

Vladimr Lenin:

Leader of revolution in

Russia to form the

Soviet Union

Joseph Stalin:

Leader of Soviet Union

following Vladimir

Lenin

Adolf Hitler:Fascist

leader of Germany following

WWI

Authoritarian/Totalitarian

Dictatorships• Totalitarian and Authoritarian dictatorships are not the same forms of government, they differ in terms of how they come into existence as well as how much power exercise

• Authoritarian - A dictatorship that comes to power when an existing conservative government imposes increasing undemocratic practices

• Example: Hitler and Nazi Germany, Stalin and the Soviet Union (early)

• Totalitarian - A dictatorship that comes to power from a mass movement that creates a government that has total control over the all aspects of nation: politics, culture, religion, etc.

• Example: Mao Zedong and China (not entirely totalitarian, but more so than Authoritarian), Stalin and the Soviet Union (later)

TotalitarianAuthoritarian

Hitler(German

y)

Stalin(Soviet Union)

Zedong(China)

Combination

Summary

• Political Ideology - A set of beliefs on which political leadership is followed

• Communism - Political ideologies that are opposed to capitalism and favor collective ownership of wealth

• Fascism - A revolutionary form of ultra-nationalism used to redefine a nation through which many social organizations that are independent from the state are destroyed or marginalized

• Totalitarian and Authoritarian dictatorships are not the same forms of government, they differ in terms of how they come into existence as well as how much power exercise