Conditions That Led to Emergence of Authoritarian State in 20th Century

An authoritarian state is a form of governance featured with the rejection of political plurality and application of executive power to maintain the political status. Mostly, authoritarianism is exercised with a strong reduction in the rule of law while separating the powers and denying democracy to prevail. The authoritarian state in the 20^th century was witnessed in the 20^th century during the reign of Adolf Hitler of Germany, among other leaders. During the tenure of Hitler, ill-defined powers by the executive were witnessed in the country that experienced segregation against Jews. This paper aims to explore what conditions led to authoritarian governance in some states, such as Germany.

The major conditions that led to an authoritarian state were treaties that were signed in the 20^th century. For instance, the Versailles treaty of Germany after the first world war led to resistance as some political powers felt humiliated by the agreements that were to be signed by the parties. Due to the forced signing of the treaty, there emerged blame politics that made Hitler press more on his powers at the expense of Germans. Under the treaty of Versailles, there were embarrassments since the land would be lost to some regions, and that sparked reactions that ended up in huge damages. The treaty contributed to inflation in Germany, and due to economic disparity, many people were unemployed and lived in poor conditions. When the elites in Hitler’s government saw people were resisting as a result of the treaty impacts, they posed heavy terms, which led to authoritarianism.

Violence in the streets contributed to authoritative policies since Germany had a state of unrest for a long time. People then felt that their rights were violated, and betrayal was rampant by the political systems, which led to inequality in social, economic and political stratification. Therefore, Germany became a volatile country to live, and the government then had to pose strict measures that limited democracy to the governed. The authoritative powers were exercised for countries to gain the mark of value from the rivals where people were forced to join the military to protect the interest of politicians in the 20^th century.

The weaknesses of the constitution then necessitated the president to exercise dictatorial governance. There were too many political formations, for instance, in Reichstag, resulting in difficulty in the single party to have a majority. As a result, the most established parties made most of the policies even when the majority of the parties were against them. The president then had the right to rule by decree, which enabled Hitler to propose evil decisions against Jews where many people lost their lives as a result. The president was in charge of appointing the chancellor, who would be the head of government. Therefore, it means a president would appoint an accomplice in the dictatorial rule because of the constitution’s provision then.

Germany was an authoritarian state in the 20^th century during the reign of Adolf Hitler. The governance of people then was subject to the individuals in authority who made laws and decisions as they wished. The conditions that facilitated the emergence of authoritarian state were the Versailles treaty, the state of political and economic unrest that resulted in major violence in the streets and the weaknesses of the constitution, which gave the president a decree to rule during emergencies. As a result of authoritarianism, there was massive killing of Jews under the political system characterized by self-centred politicians.