Voting for Hitler and Stalin

by Jessen, Ralph; Richter, Hedwig

• ISBN13: 9783593394893
• ISBN10: 3593394898
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-15
• Publisher: Campus Verlag Gmbh

Summary

Dictatorships throughout the twentieth century-including Mussolini's Italy, the Third Reich, the Soviet Union, Poland, and East Germany-held elections. But were they more than rituals of participation without the slightest effect on the distribution of power? Why did political regimes radically opposed to liberal democracy feel the need to imitate their enemies? Offering significant insights into absolutist state governance, Voting for Hitler and Stalinthoroughly investigates the remarkable, paradoxical phenomenon of dictatorial elections, revealing the many ways they transcended mere propaganda.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Non-Competitive Elections in 20th Century Dictatorships: Some Questions and General Considerations	p. 9
Legitimacy
The Self-Staging of a Plebiscitary Dictatorship: The NS-Regime Between "Uniformed Reichstag", Referendum and Reichsparteitag	p. 39
Popular Sovereignty and Constitutional Rights in the USSR's Supreme Soviet Elections of February 1946	p. 59
Integration, Celebration, and Challenge: Soviet Youth and Elections, 1953-1968	p. 81
Mass Obedience: Practices and Functions of Elections in the German Democratic Republic	p. 103
Elections in Modern Dictatorships: Some Analytical Considerations	p. 126
Discipline
The Great Soviet Paradox: Elections and Terror in the Unions, 1937-1938	p. 147
Plebiscites in Fascist Italy: National Unity and the Importance of the Appearance of Unity	p. 173
Works Council Elections in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1968	p. 186
Faking It: Neo-Soviet Electoral Politics in Central Asia	p. 204
Dissent and Loyalty
Elections, Plebiscitary Elections, and Plebiscites in Fascist Italy and Nazi-Germany: Comparative Perspectives	p. 231
"Germany Totally National Socialist"-National Socialist Reichstag Elections and Plebiscites, 1933-1938: The Example of Schleswig-Holstein	p. 234
Elections in the Soviet Union, 1937-1989: A View into a Paternalistic World from Below	p. 276
"The People's Voice": The Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1958 in the Belarusian Capital Minsk	p. 309
Contributors	p. 337
Index	p. 341
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