A Look at Types of Democracy: Direct & Representative - Essay Sample

Introduction

Democracy refers to a system of government where the national citizens are given the freedom to exercise power through voting. There are various forms of democracy with the main two being a direct and representative democracy. In a direct democracy, the national citizens have the power to vote and decide everything in each issue. In the representative democracy, citizens come together to elect representatives who eventually form a government body for instance members of parliament. The representatives make decisions based on the needs of the majority.

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Totalitarianism is a government system where the government controls both the private and the public life of the national citizens completely (Burrowes 278). In this type of government, the majority are not given any freedom to power because it is a dictatorship form of government. There are primarily three forms of totalitarianism that existed in the '30s and the '40s namely - fascism, communism, and Nazi. Fascism is a type of dictatorship government that rules under one main party which is typically against democracy (Burrowes 280). The main aim of fascism government is to protect the nation form military attacks as well as economic difficulties. Communism is a form of government that is also against democracy where the citizens are denied the rights to own private properties. In this type of government, the leaders or the governing body provides for the needs of the citizens in the country where the community shares all the wealth without any sense of individual ownership (Drochon 333). Nazism is a form of dictatorship government that is characterized by aggressive militaristic and political acts such as arbitrary genocide, expansionism, international deceit and the rule of law expansion (Adler, Les, and Thomas 1050). This type of government was exercised mostly in the 1930s in Germany where the Nazi party was based on anti-Semitism and racism. This paper aims to compare democracy and totalitarianism in the 1930s and the 1940s concerning fascism, communism, and Nazism.

Democracy vs. Totalitarianism in the 1930s

Democracy Totalitarianism

Fascism In the 1930s democracy was fought against by the fascist supporters during the 1st world war where they viewed it as weak and could not protect them from the defeat and the economic threats that were posed by the war (Maddux 100). Fascists also accused democracy of having numerous moral distortions and even considered it to be more materialistic Fascism as a form of totalitarian government became strong in the 1930s where it did not recognize the rights of the majority but only believed in a single political party (Drochon 335). Any opposition parties to the fascist were killed and got rid of through police terror. Also, fascism also had full control over all the sources of media such as the newspapers, and televisions where they controlled whatever was being written and reported to the public with the main aim of taking control of the thought s of the people.

A perfect example of fascism in the 1930s was in Italy when Benito Mussolini took fought for power and won. He used his influence to regain Roman's empire glory. He invaded most of the other countries such as Ethiopia and Albania in the late 1930s.

Communism Democracy was also opposed by a variety of communist parties in the 1930s that denied the rights of the individual or private ownership of property (Tucker 558). Those who opposed the rule of communist parties were killed especially during the reign of Joseph Stalin where he used the Soviet Union to take control over all the privately owned property. All the democratic parties and their supporters were forced to support the communist parties, and hence democracy during this era was weak and could not protect its supporters (Tucker 578).

In the 1930s, communism being one of the dictatorships and the totalitarian government had gained power in many states. The communists did not allow private ownership of property, and they used to invade other countries to protect the economy and gain power communist power. A perfect example is during the reign of Joseph Stalin in the 1930s after the death of Lenin (Tucker 560). His main aim during this time was to gain power and strengthen the communist states. Besides, he made use of a secret form of police violence to kill people who opposed him, especially during the riots. Through the Soviet Union, Stalin commenced a collectivization program and earned full control of all the privately owned properties such as land. The production of food for the country took place through collective work by most of the families. Those who opposed Stalin's rule of collectivism were killed by the secret police and their farms and livestock destroyed (Tucker 568). As a result, there were numerous deaths due to the attacks by the police as well as drought and famine that emerged due to the destruction of farms.

Nazism Nazism gained power in the 1930s during the start until the end of the second world war. It was a form of government that denied the rights of the majorities and did not support democracy(Adler, Les, and Thomas1050) Nazism was highly practiced in Germany through the Nazi party which was a form of anti-Semitism and racist government. It used a form of totalitarian government where the superior race, the Germany people took control over the leadership of the country. They believed that they had the excellent ability to survive. All the other races such as the blacks, Jews and Slavs were considered as sub-human(Adler, Les, and Thomas 1056)

Democracy vs. Totalitarianism in the 1940s

Democracy Totalitarianism

Fascism During the 1940s, democracy had started to be enforced due to the fight by the Comintern against fascism when there was the emergence of movements for national liberation across Europe (Renton 56).

.Totalitarianism had started to decline in terms of fascism as many parties came together to fight against it. The period between 1939 and 1941 is also referred to as the militant-antifascism during the invasion of Germany into the Soviet Union (Renton 50).

Communism Communism was still taking place in the 1940s but at a lower rate than in the 1930s. Democracy to own individual or private property was still denied in most of the states. Although Germany invaded the Soviet Union, most of the countries such as China formed their alternative means of communism.

Totalitarian government continued to exist in the 1940s but reduced gradually from the 1930s.

Nazism Democracy increased in the 1940s in terms of Nazism wherein the period between 1941 and 1943 during the invasion of German into the Soviet Union, and the whole world was called to fight against Nazism(Adler, Les, and Thomas 1055)

Totalitarianism in the form of Nazism was ended in the 1940s when during the German invasion to the Soviet Union and called upon the whole world for unity and togetherness to fight and defeat (Adler, Les, and Thomas 1056)

Conclusion

Democracy in the 1930s was highly fought against by the communist, the fascist and Nazism parties, which represented a totalitarian form of government. Totalitarianism is a government system where the government controls both the private and the public life of the national citizens completely. Fascism is a type of dictatorship government that rules under one main party which is typically against democracy. Communism is a form of government that is also against democracy where the citizens are denied the rights to own private properties. Nazism is a form of dictatorship government that is characterized by aggressive militaristic and political acts such as arbitrary genocide, expansionism, international deceit and the rule of law expansion. The main aim of a totalitarian kind of leadership during the '30s was to protect themselves from the military attacks and poor economic conditions that emerged due to the 1st and 2nd world war. Supporters of the totalitarian form of government believed that democratic government was weak to protect them and was full of materialism and unfairness to the citizens. In the 1940's most of the totalitarian governance started to decline especially during the Germany invasion into the Soviet Union where they called upon the people in the whole world to unite and get rid of Nazism and fascism. Totalitarian leadership continued to decline in the following years until democracy was reinforced again in most of the states.

Works Cited

Adler, Les K., and Thomas G. Paterson. "Red fascism: The merger of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia in the American image of totalitarianism, 1930s-1950s." The American Historical Review 75.4 (1970): 1046-1064.

Burrowes, Robert. "Totalitarianism: The revised standard version." World Politics 21.2 (1969): 272-294.

Drochon, Hugo H. "Democracy, Anti-Totalitarianism, and Liberalism." Politics, Religion & Ideology 18.3 (2017): 333-336.

Maddux, Thomas R. "Red Fascism, Brown Bolshevism: The American Image of Totalitarianism in the 1930s." The Historian40.1 (1977): 85-103.

Renton, Dave. Fascism, Anti-fascism, and Britain in the 1940s.Springer, 2016.

Tucker, Robert C. "The dictator and totalitarianism." World Politics 17.4 (1965): 555-583.