Effects Of Democracy In 1918-1945

1461 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Similarities Between Democracy And Communism

Democracy, during 1918-1945, showed to be ridged and inflexible. The idea of democracy was attempted by many countries that were fighting for their rights but the leaders put in power showed the idea of democracy’s weakness at this time. Both world wars played a huge part in democracy’s decline at this time and rise in fascism, Nazism, and communism. World War 1 was intended to save democracy but by the end of the war democracy was squashed. The after effects of the war caused a rise in nationalism and want for revenge. Ultimately, democracy faded in and out during the 1918-1945 showing the style of governing to be fragile. World War 1 was unnecessary and was caused by the web of all of the country’s alliances with each other. The war was Many countries by the end of WW1 and throughout WW2 had revolutions and civil wars going on in their own countries. China was having a civil war and Russia was fighting an ongoing revolution. In both instances and all instances at the time the native people of these countries dreamt of equality and democracy but instead the wrong leaders or parties were put into power. The USSR fought for many years to get rid of communism and “at one point more than 100,00 foreign troops- mostly Japanese, British, American, and French” (Duiker & Spielvogel, 609) were sent to Russia to try to squash the communism problem. In Russia’s case they ended their many years of fighting to end up with Joseph Stalin, a dictator, in power of the country, who gave the people no involvement in affairs. Many people were killed under Stalin’s leadership and many people were forced to work in camps. In China’s case, they first had a failed attempt at a revolution which caused the rise of the communist party. This ended in another civil war with Mao Zedong’s communist party in power. Japan at this time had many failed attempts at putting a democratic government in place because they always were “fragile and unable to survive throughout the 1920’s” (Duiker & Spielvogel, 641). Their democratic trials never stuck in place and once the Great Democracy is what they thought they were getting when they took out the old government and replaced it. But in reality the new governments put in place were the total opposite from democracy. Also, after WW1 people wanted change and revenge from all the damage done so, they put leaders like Stalin and Hitler in power for radical change. Ultimately this lead to the second War World, which got rid of anyone’s desires for democracy. And even America’s leader FDR was making anti-democratic decisions that lead up to America being forced into the World War. In the end, democracy was proven to be weak in the after math of the first World War and in the second World

Show More
Related

  • World War 1 Dbq

    481 Words  | 1 Pages

    “War is unorganized murder, and nothing else” (Harry Patch). In World War 1, which was first called the Great War, there were many causes of the war breaking out. The Great War started August 1st 1914 days later after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophia, when they visited Bosnia. Many soldiers went to war for no reason but to fight for their country. The Great War was not only affected by the soldiers, but also by the civilians as well. Women replaced men in factories, offices, and shops while the men were at war so that everything would be working smoothly. The main underlying causes of World War 1 were the alliances and imperialism in Europe.

    Read More

  • Democratic Revolution At The Cold War's End Summary

    1702 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the 20th century, the rise of communism sparked rage in people throughout the world. More towards the end of the 1900's the fall of communism and dictatorships was just the beginning of what would eventually be a large democratic change for several countries. 1989: Democratic Revolutions at the Cold War's End, speaks about the change brought to several different countries from the 1980's-1990's and plans to show "the global transformations that marked the end of the cold war and shaped the era in which we live"(Pg V). During the cold war, communist had power and control over a large area and spread communism throughout several continents. This book specifically hits on six different studies of where communism and dictatorship affected these areas and what they did to stop it. Poland, Philippines, Chile, South Africa, Ukraine, and China throughout the end of the 20th century created revolutionary movements which brought them all one step closer to freeing themselves and creating democratic change.

    Read More

  • Was absolute monarch the foundation of Democracy?

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...stakes that were made and try to avoid them. Without a doubt, democracy was the answer for most of these governments. If leaders were formally elected by citizens to represent them, the representative would not abuse their powers. If there was indeed a loophole in the way this system worked, the government would elect again to make further decisions. If King George III considered a democracy rather than a monarchy, the British Regency Crisis would not have existed. If the directory had made decisions as a whole rather than Napoleon crowning himself as dictator, many wars would most definitely be prevented. If monarchy was not the way the French government worked during 1770’s, the Queen would not have been a young, inexperienced fifteen year old girl, Marie Antoinette. The abuse and misuse of power from these absolute monarchs inevitably led to the rise democracy.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Franklin D. Roosevelt's The Great Arsenal Of Democracy

    713 Words  | 2 Pages

    From September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945, the world was witness to the most fatal war in our history. During this six year period, an estimated 78 million died. In 1940, The US, despite not having joined the war at the time, was at risk of being invaded. Franklin D. Roosevelt realized that without the help of the US, the war efforts of Great Britain and the rest of Europe were futile. However, American citizens were opposed to joining the war because of the horrors of World War 1 and the idea of those horrors being repeated. In an effort to convince the American public to take action, Roosevelt addressed the country on December 29, 1940. Roosevelt’s use of repetition and pathos within his speech, “The Great Arsenal of Democracy,” illustrated

    Read More

  • The Causes of World War One, Austro-Hungary

    1607 Words  | 4 Pages

    World War One was a war that could have been prevented. If all the European powers were to simply act to comply with one another many lives could have been saved and deaths that should have not occurred. A battle mostly between Austro-Hungary and Germany against Serbia, Russia, France, and England, at what cause was some many lives sacrificed for, none, just selfish governments looking to expand their empire. The main perpetrator of World War One was none other than Austro-Hungary. The reasons being for Austro-Hungary to cause the war was that they were the ones to place the ultimatum on Serbia that would lead to declare war and bring in all other countries to fight. Austro-Hungary brought in Germany; beforehand they had a treaty with Germany, the one who was thought to cause the war and why others came into war.

    Read More

  • Democracy In The 19th Century

    1358 Words  | 3 Pages

    Democracy in the United States became prominent in the early to mid 19th century. Andrew Jackson, the 7th president of the United States, was inaugurated in 1829 and was best known as the person who mainstreamed democracy in America. Because he came from a humble background, he was the “genuine common man.” (Foner, pg. 303) He claimed he recognized the needs of the people and spoke on behalf of the majority [farmers, laborers]. However, critics of Jackson and democracy called him “King Andrew I” because of his apparent abuse of presidential power [vetoing]. These critics believed he favored the majority so much that it violated the U.S. constitution, and they stated he was straying too far away from the plan originally set for the United States. Because of the extreme shift of power to the majority, the limiting of rights of the few [merchants, industrialists] and the abuse of power under Jackson’s democracy, the foundational documents set in the constitution was violated, and the work of the preceding presidents were all but lost.

    Read More

  • Militarism And Imperialism And World War I

    1119 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before we even look at World War 1, we need to fully understand the importance of the rise of militarism, imperialism and nationalism. You may as yourself, why is this important? This is important because these ideologies led the Great War. There are a lot of similarities

    Read More

  • Illiberal Democracy

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin democracy simply is defined as being for the people, but Zakaria explains how western countries governments version of democracy has meant liberal democracy, a system that has the qualities where there is not only fair and free election, but also constitutional limitation of power that the government has, separation of powers and protection of basic rights such as freedom of speech, assembly, religion and property. Liberal Democracy avoided civil war by providing protection of its citizens and their rights. This form of democracy differs from the historical and theoretical form of democracy. There are many different forms of government besides liberal democracy, in fact, many countries goes through many types of government before becoming a liberal democracy. Countries tend to start of with self-elected ruler that do not protect its people rights, this form of government is an Illiberal Autocracy, then they go on to become a Liberal Autocracy, still self elected but protects its peoples rights, and then finally become Liberal Democracy. Another form of government is illiberal democracy; this government is not free and fair.

    Read More

  • The Causes of World War 1

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    World War 1 (better known as The Great War), was caused by a great many elements, some long-term, some short-term and the spark. Together these reasons created a brutal war involving many countries across the globe and also killing a vast number of the world’s population. In this essay, I will thoroughly explain what started this war and which reasons made it start sooner.

    Read More

  • The First World War (WWI)

    444 Words  | 1 Pages

    In my opinion WW1 was an unnecessary global conflict in which 22 million people needlessly lost their lives. I think that this conflict could have be prevented or stopped in 2 ways.

    Read More

  • Democracy in Latin America

    2755 Words  | 6 Pages

    Firstly, K. Isbester mentions that democracy has a different meaning for everyone, as some can define democracy as a good aspect for development, on the contrary other believe that it is nothing more than voting after several years. Although, Latin America see democratic g...

    Read More

  • Does Democracy Work?

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... result of a direct democracy, complications like getting every citizen to vote on every single issue, something close to impossible with modern populations that grow like grass in springtime. These changes have caused democracy to become intertwined with other forms of government, and while they have caused a deviation from pure democracy, they have allowed countless nations to function efficiently while maintaining the basic pillar of democracy: that ultimate authority and power is derived from the citizens.

    Read More

  • Democracy in China

    3306 Words  | 7 Pages

    Democracy is “...the word that resonates in people’s minds and springs from their lips as they struggle for freedom and a better way of life...” (Schmitter and Karl, 1991:75). However, the word democracy has many different means depending on the country and context it is used in. “Every country has is own culture and comes by its political system through its own history” (Greenberg, 2007:101, cited in Li, 2008:4). Li, (2008) states that because of China’s political structure the usual road to democracy may be difficult for it to achieve. The western idea ...

    Read More

  • Why Democracy is the Best Form of Government

    1173 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout history different types of instrumental regimes have been in tact so civilizations remained structured and cohesive. As humanity advanced, governments obligingly followed. Although there have been hiccups from the ancient times to modern day, one type of government, democracy, has proven to be the most effective and adaptive. As quoted by Winston Churchill, democracy is the best form of government that has existed. This is true because the heart of democracy is reliant, dependent, and thrives on the populaces desires; which gives them the ability for maintaining the right to choose, over time it adjusts and fixes itself to engulf the prominent troubling issues, and people have the right of electing the person they deem appropriate and can denounce them once they no longer appease them. In this paper, the benefits of democracy are outlined, compared to autocratic communism, and finally the flaws of democracy are illustrated.

    Read More

  • DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT

    2269 Words  | 5 Pages

    There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...

    Read More

More about Effects Of Democracy In 1918-1945

Open Document