Unit Two: The Totalitarian State

Overview

The Versailles Treaty and its creation, the League of Nations, did not produce long-term peace and security. Indeed, the Treaty contained terms which promoted conditions of instability and resentment.

This unit will examine:

• how the appearance of totalitarian regimes were, in part, a product of conditions and policies that promoted economic and political instability at national and international levels;
• how the pervasive nature of totalitarian regimes affected the rights of the citizens of those totalitarian nations;
• how the inclination of totalitarian regimes to utilize state violence at both the domestic and international levels was to continue; and,
• how the inability and/or unwillingness of the international community, particularly the Western democracies, to confront the aggressive tendencies of these totalitarian regimes was to have profound consequences.

The major powers were profoundly affected by their experiences during the First World War. In some nations, the war had produced conditions which contributed to the destruction of existing political establishments. The old ruling elites of Russia an d Germany did not survive the war. Indeed, Russia became the Soviet Union and experienced a giant social experiment, the creation of a communist state.

The fledgling German democracy was unable to survive the ideological extremism which divided German society and the profound tensions produced by the defeat in the War. It did not have a democratic history and lacked the political sophistication that democracies demand. The world-wide depression, beginning in 1929, only exacerbated both social divisions within societies and the loss of faith in the existing political institutions. The politics of extremism were to overwhelm German democracy and resu lt in a totalitarian regime.

Germany was not unique. Totalitarian regimes appeared in a number of nations including Italy and Spain. Although the expressions of totalitarianism differed in each nation, the regimes did share some common attributes in that they all profoundly rest ricted the rights of their citizenry, and were prone to use state violence to achieve national and/or international objectives.

The non-totalitarian nations were either unprepared or unwilling to confront the aggressive tendencies/actions of totalitarian regimes. The leaders and publics of the democracies remembered the agonies of the world war. They allowed totalitarian agg ression in the vain hope that some gains would satisfy the political appetites of those regimes and prevent a military confrontation which could lead to another world war.

Unit Two: Foundational Objectives

Concept: Totalitarianism

Knowledge Objectives The student will:

• Know that effective, collective security at the international level is challenged by the reluctance of nations to relinquish any of their national sovereignty and national decision-making powers.
• Know that economic and political instability can engender a climate conducive to the rise of radical/extreme political movements.
• Know that traditional political institutions and political processes are questioned/challenged during periods of social, economic, and political instability.
• Know that political accountability implies that those in power are held responsible for the consequences of policies that they have implemented.
• Know that within each society, an interplay exists between individual needs and rights and collective needs and rights.
• Know that various political systems exists which a society can adopt and that each of the various alternative political paradigms possesses its own definition of the relationship between individual and collective rights.
• Know that both totalitarian and authoritarian regimes place restrictions on the rights of individual citizens and the involvement of individual citizens in national decision making.
• Know that the traditional mechanisms utilized by totalitarian and authoritarian regimes to control the actions of citizens include a compliant and loyal police; obedient bureaucracies, military and judiciary; effective control of all forms of communi cation; and severe limits on public participation in political decision-making processes.
• Know that authoritarian and totalitarian regimes institute many similar policies such as limiting legal political opposition, curtailing the rights of association, free speech, and judicial safeguards for the public.

Skills/Abilities The student will:

• Learn and practise the basic research skills of:
• finding information;
• classifying information into meaningful categories;
• distinguishing between relevant and less relevant information; and,
• summarizing information.
• Learn and practise using the critical attributes of concepts and paradigms as criteria for classifying, evaluating, and analysis.
• Learn and practise using analytical grids to categorize and organize information to make it meaningful.
• Learn and practise the skills of decision making and conflict resolution.

Values Issues The student will:

• Discuss whether domestic political and economic considerations significantly influence the foreign policy decisions of a nation?
• Discuss whether the application of the concepts of national sovereignty and collective security can be reconciled in the formulation of national foreign policies?
• Discuss whether there is a criterion which should determine what areas of life should be considered the domain of the individual and the domain of the state?
• Consider how a society should balance the rights of the individual and the collective rights of the group?
• Reflect on how a society will determine whether a traditional value or an utilitarian value should become the societal norm?

Core Material for Unit Two

Core Content	Core Concepts	Suggested Time Allotment
The Search for Peace and Stability The Political Situation in Germany of the 1920s The League of Nations: A Search for Collective Security The Global Depression: Public Disillusionment with Traditional Answers	Collective Security Balance of Power Political Accountability Economic Interdependence Social Effects	4 hours
The Rise of Totalitarianism and the Impact on the Individual Stalin and the Creation of a Police State Hitler and the Politics of Extreme Nationalism and Racism	Totalitarianism Authoritarianism Political Instability Racism Anti-Semitism	6 hours
The Era of the Aggressors Aggression and the League: A Failed Response Hitler: The Failure of Appeasement Appeasement in Action: Munich and the Demise of Czechoslovakia The End of Appeasement and Another World War	National Imperatives Credibility Strategic Interests Sanctions Foreign Policy Appeasement Consequences	6 hours

Time to cover the core material	16 hours
Time available to teach optional concepts, to enrich or reinforce, or to accommodate modifications to the pacing and timing factors through the use of the Adaptive Dimension	4 hours
Total class time	20 hours

The core material appears in bold type on the pages that follow. The remainder of the material in the unit is not core; teachers may choose to work through all, some or none of the material. This material should be seen as an opportunity to individua lize instruction for students with different levels of intellectual ability and motivation. Teachers may also choose to substitute locally developed material in optional areas where it is appropriate. Such material should reflect community interests and must also meet the concepts, skills, and Values Objectives

of the course.