Download Ideology and Popular Support, Combined Essay

All Year 12 Historians
Assess the Contribution of Ideology and Popular Support to the Rise to Power
of Two Authoritarian and Single Party State Leaders
INTRODUCTION - Define, introduce your examples and explain a method or ‘say what you’re going to say’.
 Could define ideology; a set of ideals (not policies – these are derivatives).
 Could define popular support – as an ideal a totalitarian state will aim for. Majority unquestioning loyalty to the
state.
 Authoritarian states – would be useful to define these here because in explaining that Authoritarian states of the
1900’s are those which hope to gain complete unopposed dominance of the state you can stress the importance
of having popular support to consolidate and maintain control (as opposed to having it to gain control). (Nic)
Magic does not exist, at least when referring to historical events. There are specific and sometimes rather
weird reasons as to how certain events happen, such as why a particular student might be absent from
school on a Monday. Therefore, it stands to reason that the rise to power of authoritarian and single party
state leaders can be explained. Within this essay, we are going to assess the contribution of ideology and
popular support to the rise of two particularly famous “dictators”, Hitler and Mao. When talking about
ideology, we mean a set of ideals, and in the same vein, we are defining popular support as an ideal that
a totalitarian state will aim for: unquestioning loyalty to the state from all sections of society in the country.
On the other hand an authoritarian regime refers to a regime that tries to preserve existing institutions by
keeping all sections of society politically passive.
PARAGRAPH 1 – WHAT DO AUTHORITARIAN SINGLE PARTY STATE LEADERS WANT IDEALS – What the ASPS wants to aim for and gain eventually.
 IDEOLOGY - National Socialism v Maoism
 POPULAR (UNQUESTIONING) SUPPORT – defined as majority support and (in a totalitarian state)
complete unquestioning support (Christine)
In essence, authoritarian single-party state leaders want full and unchallenged control. However, different
authoritarian single-party state leaders in the past like Mao and Hitler had different ideologies that influenced their
regime. National socialism, which was practiced by Hitler, is on the right wing and Maoism is on the left. Despite
the differences, both Hitler and Mao’s actions were seemingly aimed at gaining popular support. Evidence has
shown that they both made changes that were beneficial to the majority in their countries. They also took much
use of propaganda. However, their regimes also used remote camps to exploit those who did not fit the ideal of a
citizen. It can be argued that the leaders were more interested in the end goal, which was gaining undisputed
control, rather than building up a fan base. Which was why they weren’t afraid of using terror and force to obtain it.
PARAGRAPH 2 – WHAT DO AUTHORITARIAN SINGLE PARTY STATE LEADERS NEED PRACTICALITIES
 POLITICAL PLATFORM/PRACTICAL POLICY
 POWER (Khai Xi)
Although starting up with a strong ideology, authoritarian single staten party leaders need to have
practical policies in order to implement their ideologies. Seeing the fact that most authoritarian rule started
out with a nation in crisis, it is frequently demanded of authoritarian leaders to deal with the immediate
crisis at hand and gain popular support. However, this would mean that a compromise has to be made for
implementing the initial ideology. For example, Mao wanted to implement Communism, but the idea of the
working class rising up and overthrowing their owners would not have worked in China due to the fact that
China has not undergone industrialization and the peasantry formed the majority of the population. Hence，
Mao had to alter the ideology of Communism, to replace the idea of working class as the main drivers of
society which will overthrow the ‘chains of capitalism’ with the peasantry. This shows that in order for
authoritarian single party state leaders to establish control over their countries, they need to implement
practical policies to show the public that their support which led to the leaders’ rise in power was not
misplaced.
All Year 12 Historians
PRAGRAPH 3 – What CARROTS did Hitler use to get to power?
 POLICY – because of context (what was it?), he introduced certain policies (what were they?)
 PROPAGANDA – got the messages across. (Matthew)
Ideology required practical policy to back it up, and Hitler was no exception. To consolidate his control over
Germany, Hitler needed to appease the peoples of Germany, who were dissatisfied with the past leaders since
World War One, and another poor leader would do nothing but put the nation in further chaos. Failure was not
an option. Whilst ideology might seem simple, putting it into practice was not. Hitler spoke of the Treaty of
Versailles and the injustices on Germany, but it was not so easily broken apart, especially Germany was in an
extremely precarious position - they were still recovering from WW1, and reparations did not help them.
Germany did not have the power to fight should they overstep boundaries. Nevertheless, Hitler still had to
destroy the Treaty of Versailles, because it was part of his ideology to make Germany great again. Also part of
it was the unification of German speakers. After WW2, when the old Austrian-Hungarian empire was split into
many smaller states, German speakers ended up in these states. Hitler wanted to unite the German peoples.
Finally, HItler wanted Lebensraum, or living space. He wanted to expand Germany’s borders, to create more
space for the German peoples. Hitler’s policies was mainly focused on eradicating the Treaty of Versailles,
because majority of the German people viewed it as the reason for their troubles post WWI, and blamed their
leaders for it. Hitler personally called the people responsible for signing the Treaty of Versailles the ‘November
Criminals’. However, despite recognizing the need for the removal of the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler did not
forget about the people of Germany. Inflation, poverty, a poor social and economic situation plagued Germany.
During the 1922-23 elections, Hitler promised work and bread. The aims behind this were to reduce
unemployment, create jobs through rearmament, and make Germany economically self-sufficient. Again, the
Treaty of Versailles has links to this. All this, of course, would required the use of propaganda to help spread
the word. No regime comes to power without the use of propaganda, and Hitler used this to help him get to
power.
PARAGRAPH 4 – What STICKS did Hitler use to get to power?
 USE OF FORCE
 MANIPULATION OF A SYSTEM
 UNDERMINING OF OPPOSITIONS WEAKNESSES (Kuan)
Hitler got into power through various means, including some use of physical force to attack political opponents,
manipulation of the political system in the Weimar Republic and undermining the weaknesses of the opposition.
Hitler created the Sturmabteilung (SA) to disrupt the meetings of opposing parties and to combat the
paramilitary units of his opponents. This helped to stall the progress of Hitler’s political enemies and allowed
the Nazi party to act steps ahead of other parties. Hitler also burned down the Reichstag and used a nearby
assumed Communist to blame the Communists and make them lose support, which worked to great effect.
Hitler also commissioned Joseph Goebbels to handle the Nazi’s propaganda campaign to gain support from
the German people. Many Germans were sick of the poor quality of life brought by the US stock market crash
and the following depression, and hated the establishment of the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler promised to
remove the treaty in order to restore German honour and re-establish German pride by pledging something for
every class of German society. Farmers were promised higher prices for their produce to make up for their
losses, middle class citizens were promised a restoration of small business profits and an end to Communism
and the unemployed were promised jobs for the construction of roads and stadiums. Wealthy business men
also helped to finance the Nazis due to the rising popularity of Communism among common workers. In short,
Hitler told the German people what they wanted to hear, and Goebbels used the Germans’ anger for support.
Through a shady political deal by Hindenburg and Papen, Hitler was offered the position of vice chancellor in
1933 in order to get the Nazi party on their side. Hitler took advantage of this offer and later refused,
demanding that he instead be made chancellor. Hindenburg and Papen agreed, thinking that they could control
Hitler from the sidelines. German people were still angry about the Treaty of Versailles and supported Hitler
because he promised to overturn it. Industrialists gave Hitler money and support.
All Year 12 Historians
PARAGRAPH 5 – What CARROTS did Mao use to get to power?
Mao, like Hitler, made attractive promises and formulated policies to encourage the support of the
population of the single-party state which he ruled. Mao emphasized and encouraged nationalism promising to
eliminate foreign control in China which was causing resentment amongst the people. Mao also promised,
again like Hitler, to solve the economic issues plaguing his country. He promoted economic improvement
through development of communism (following on from Sun’s principle of socialism). Mao also promised to
improve peoples’ livelihood by ensuring the availability of food for everyone. Mao’s ultimate goal was to
establish a totalitarian regime. For this to happen he needed to encourage the population’s unquestioning
support. Mao used propaganda as a tool to promote his cause, enable his rise to power, and destabilize his
opponents. Like Hitler, who wrote Mein Kampf, Mao used his own writings: Quotations from Chairman Mao
Tse-tung as reinforcement of his ideas and policies. He indoctrinated the youth of China with his ideology in
order to create loyal followers and created an image of himself that was idolised by the people. Mao also
discouraged religion, since it competed with his supreme power.
PARAGRAPH 6 – What STICKS did Mao use to get to power?
Anyone who opposed Mao and the Communist Party of China was considered to be manipulated by the
West and corrupted by affluency. Before he rose to power, Mao both gained supporters and strength from
individuals and groups that were retaliating against the government. He used force and violence as means of
attaining and enforcing power, although Hitler was not successful in his attempt to gain power through force
(The Munich 1923 Beer Hall Putsch), Mao was. The ultimate step in Mao's rise to power occurred as a result of
the use of force, specifically his occupation of Bejing. Logically, Mao attained power without using legal tactics
as there was no effective legal system at the time. In this respect Mao’s methods contrast sharply to Hitler’s.
Once in power, Mao did not tolerate any kind of opposition, and enforced his power by reacting to opposition
violently and mercilessly. He targeted intellectuals in particular, whom he perceived as his greatest threat.
COMMENTRY PARAGRAPH
This essay is complex so you should write a paragraph before your conclusion tying as much together as you
can.
Things I’d suggest you can comment on here are;
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
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The fact that the ideological state template and popular support for it are LONG TERM AIMS. It is not necessary
to have these BEFORE the leader rises to power but it is necessary to show steps towards these to CONSOLIDATE
power.
What IS necessary BEFORE the leader rises to power are an attractive political platform and/or a measure of
initial power. It seems these practical elements are more important than ideology and popular support
(evidence to support this = examples of Hitler’s ideology being changed or moulded, evidence of a rise to power
despite a lack of legitimate support).
Which is MORE important in the leader’s rise to power – the Political Platform or Power (the carrot or the stick).
Compare your examples – Hitler seems to have used both in equal measure, Mao seems to have worked more
on his platform? Ultimately it appears that circumstance informs which of these is most important.
CONCLUSION
Directly answer the question. An attractive Ideology and Popular Support will of course contribute to a
leader’s rise to power but their contribution is not essential. What are essential are the carrot and stick
elements of an attractive political platform (which may or may not adhere to or veer from the ideology) and a
measure of power (which may or may not be the result of the majority of the population choosing to support
the leader without duress).