How Dictatorships Mobilize Support

The ability of extremist political movements of the interwar period might have maintained their power on the basis of coercion, but there was nevertheless a core group of people at the center of these movements -- not to mention a not insignificant number of the rank and file -- that supported them. In Germany, National Socialism ultimately garnered a plurality of voters to place Adolf Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany. In Italy, Mussolini's March on Rome with Fascist supporters culminated in his achieving the office of Prime Minister. In the Soviet Union, Stalin might have attracted a smaller personal following than either Hitler or Mussolini, but his cadre of supporters was sufficiently loyal to guarantee that supreme power rested in his hands.

Selections from Hitler's autobiography/political manifesto Mein Kampf provide insights into how Hitler was able to attract supporters to National Socialism. For instance, in the first section on anti-Semitism, Hitler writes, "Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord"[1]. Hitler was raised Catholic but was not religious as an adult; nevertheless, the line is crafted to combine an appeal to many people's religious sense with the mobilizing effect of anti-Semitism in identifying a common enemy. Other anti-Semitic sections provide appeals to German authorities (Schopenhauer, e.g.), appeals to racism and politics, and even appeals to conspiracy (i.e., The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion). In short, no stone remains unturned by Hitler to explain his anti-Semitism and convince others to feel the same way. More direct and honest is the section on propaganda, in which Hitler plainly states that propaganda must be simple and memorable, rather than complex or scientific; as Hitler writes, "The more modest its intellectual ballast, the more exclusively it takes into consideration the emotions of the masses, the more effective it will be."[2]

Hitler learned about the ability of propaganda and simple symbolism to encourage the masses in part from observing Mussolini, who rose to power eleven years earlier than he did. In "What Is Fascism?" Mussolini, assisted by Giovanni Gentile, appeals to romantic notions of action (rather than thought), emotion (rather than intellect), and war (rather than peace). A line from the essay that is characteristic is "The Fascist accepts life and loves it, knowing nothing of and despising suicide: he rather conceives of life as duty and struggle and conquest, but above all for others -- those who are at hand and those who are far distant, contemporaries, and those who will come after."[3] However, although "What Is Fascism?" lacks the intellectual depth of Gentile's Doctrine of Fascism, it nevertheless asserts nationalism as a core belief of the Fascists. By appealing to potential followers' patriotism and militarism, Mussolini can better mobilize a party ready to undertake action. When Mussolini writes, "For Fascism, the growth of empire, that is to say the expansion of the nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality, and its opposite a sign of decadence,"[4] he is relying on the ability of jingoism to overshadow any possible objection to the subordination of the individual and his/her rights, as expressed elsewhere in the excerpt.

Finally, with the speech "The Tasks of Business Executives," from 1931, when the industrialization plan of the first Five-Year Plan was in full swing, Stalin argues that the goals for growth in the coming year must be met, although they had not been for the previous year. To encourage his audience to achieve these goals, Stalin evokes the enemies of the Communist Party thus far identified: Shakhty and the so-called Industrial Party, accused of sabotage and wrecking since the beginning of the Five-Year Plan. Beyond these internal enemies, Stalin mentions the historical international enemies of Russia:

She was beaten by the Mongol khans. She was beaten by the Turkish beys. She was beaten by the Swedish feudal lords. She was beaten by the Polish and Lithuanian gentry. She was beaten by the British and French capitalists. She was beaten by the Japanese barons. All beat her — because of her backwardness, because of her military backwardness, cultural backwardness, political backwardness, industrial backwardness, agricultural backwardness.[5]

In this way, Stalin is able to motivate his audience by fear. Although there are other appeals interspersed in the speech (support for the party, socialism's superiority to capitalism, etc.), ultimately it is the specter of foreign invasion and control that Stalin knows will mobilize the party the most.

In conclusion, Hitler and Stalin both mobilized support for their radical causes by appealing to enemies, respectively, Jews and internal and external opponents of Soviet communism. Hitler added an uncharacteristically honest acknowledgement of how propaganda generally works as a force for mobilization. In contrast, although there are abstract enemies such as democracy, liberalism, etc., evoked by Mussolini, his primary mobilizing force is nationalism and the promise of empire, although, to be fair, elsewhere in his writing and speeches, Hitler evoked the same ideas to garner support for the Nazi Party. Even Stalin makes a faint appeal to patriotism, albeit in a negative sense by hoping to encourage his followers to defend Russia against its enemies. In the end, all three political ideologies gained supporters, although they all eventually lost them as well, demonstrating that mobilization itself cannot sustain a movement; ultimately, it has to deliver on what it promises to attain longevity.

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     [1] Adolf Hitler, Excerpts from Mein Kampf, Jewish Virtual Library, accessed July 4, 2016, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/kampf.html, p. 60, para. 4.
     [2] Ibid, Chapter 6, para. 3.
     [3] Benito Mussolini, "What Is Fascism, 1932," Modern History Sourcebook, accessed July 4, 2016, http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/mussolini-fascism.asp, para. 2.
     [4] Ibid, para. 9.
     [5] J.V. Stalin, "The Tasks of Business Executives," Marxists Internet Archive, accessed July 4, 2016, https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1931/02/04.htm, para. 42.