UPSC Mains 2021 GS Paper 1 Q13: model answer

After the First World War, many new democracies were created in Europe, but within two decades most of them had fallen to dictatorship.

The challenge

• Fascism in Italy: Mussolini came to power in 1922.
• Nazism in Germany: the Weimar Republic collapsed, and Hitler became chancellor in 1933.
• Authoritarian regimes in Spain (Franco after the civil war, 1936–39), Portugal, Poland, Hungary and the Balkans.
• Stalin's one-party rule in the Soviet Union and militarism in Japan.

Causes

• Humiliation and economic burdens of the peace treaties (Versailles).
• The Great Depression (1929): mass unemployment discredited democratic governments.
• Weak traditions of democracy, unstable coalitions and proportional representation.
• Fear of communism among the middle classes and industrialists.
• Failure of the League of Nations.

Where democracy survived

• Britain, France, the US, Scandinavia, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia (until 1938) remained democratic; the New Deal reformed democracy rather than abandoning it.

How democracies were destroyed

• Legal means were often used: Hitler used the Enabling Act (1933) to rule by decree; Mussolini came to power after the March on Rome (1922) with the king's appointment.
• Propaganda, paramilitary violence (Blackshirts, SA) and attacks on minorities, trade unions and political opponents, while courts and police looked away.

Lessons

• Democracy needs economic security, institutions that resist emergency powers, and a culture of tolerance.
• The UN, the Bretton Woods institutions and the welfare state after 1945 were built to prevent a repeat of the 1930s.

The verdict

The statement is valid: the inter-war years saw a serious challenge to democracy. Its survival in some countries and its revival after 1945 show that democracy needs economic security and strong institutions.