Chapter 20
Democracy and Dictatorship
Section 20.102
Trial and Adjustments of Democracy in Britain and
France
British Politics: The 1920s and the Depression
• GB (like the US) remained
parliamentary and democratic (in
spite of the Great Depression)
• GD exacerbated old problems
• GB was dependent on overseas
markets and imports since 1846
(Corn Laws)
• Lost some markets after WWI
– Competing industrial nations, tariff
barriers, native textile industries, new
fuel sources (instead of British coal)
Unemployment Insurance
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GB was in depression/high unemployment between 1919-1939
> 2 million got doles from unemployment insurance (adopted 1911)
Other social welfare programs
Old age pension, medical aid, subsidized housing
Helped relief labor class
Welfare state was firmly rooted before Labour party took power after
WWII
Conflict between labor and management continued
1926 coal strike turned into a general strike
3 million from other unions participated
Government declared a state of emergency
Used army and volunteers to take over service to crush strike
Trades Disputes Act of 1927
– hurt trade unions (that had participated in the general strike)
– Declared all general or sympathy strikes illegal and forbade unions
from raising $ for political purposes
The Labour Party
• 1922 election the Labour party surpassed the Liberal as chief
adversary to Conservatives
• Lab
• More consistently and actively support labor and economic
reform
• Committed to a socialist program after 1918
• Moderate version
• Run nation in 1924 and 29 under Ramsay MacDonald (as the
prime minister)
• Showed its moderation
– In 1924 it only extended unemployment relief, instituted
housing and public works projects
– Actually firmly put down strikes
• Lost steam when it recognized and loaned $ to Soviet Union
• Red letter (AKA Zinoviev)
– Secret instructions for British Labour groups from the
Communist International
– Urged preparations for communist uprising in GB
– Authenticity remains in question but Conservative cashed
in and won election of 1924
The Formation of the National Government
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Labour scored big in election of ’29
Doubled representation
MacDonald became PM again
Then came the Great Depression
Unemployment went from 1 to 3 million
Government tried to deal with the crisis
– Supplemented unemployment insurance
– Gold reserves dropped, tax base dropped,
deficit grew
• When MacDonald proposed to reduce the dole
Labour party refused to support him
• He formed an all-party coalition cabinet called
the National government
– Won overwhelming victory in election of
1931
– Majority of NG was made up of
conservatives
The Formation of the National Government
Continued
• National Government
followed budget balancing
policy under
– MacDonald (1931-35, Stanley
Baldwin 35-37, and Neville
Chamberlain (1937-1940)
– Government encouraged
industry to rationalize
• Gave low interest loans
• None of the steps brought a full
recovery (like the US)
• Recovery didn’t come until
WWII
Britain and the Commonwealth: Imperial
Relations
• After WWI British ruled over 500 million
people worldwide (25% of world’s
population and land area)
• In Ireland, Egypt, India, and Palestine
Brits faced complex problems
• Palestine
– Arabs v Jews
• Egypt (1922)
– Brits formally ended protectorate status
– But Sudan’s status remained unanswered
• India
– Nationalism continued to grow
• Ireland
– Independence created a new republic
and new problems
The Irish Question
• Had been an issue for 40 years
• Home Rule
– Had been authorized in 1914 but delayed during WWI
• Irish nationalist had even accepted German support and rose in
rebellion in 1916
• Sinn Fein party led savage war against Brits
• 1922 British recognized the Irish Free State
– Dominion status within British Commonwealth
• Protestant in Ulster (who were Presbyterians of Scottish origin)
did not want to be part of this new state
• Remained part of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland
• Irish Free State
– Affirmed its sovereignty in 1937
• Called itself Eire
• 1949 it broke all ties with British Commonwealth
– Renamed itself Republic of Ireland
• Irish question remained
• Irish agitated for annexation of Ulster
The Dominions
• Included Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, Union of South Africa
• Joined GB in WWI but nationalism
stirred
• Imperial conference in 1926
dominion status was defined
• Legally equal with each other and
with GB
• No act passed by British
Parliament would apply to a
dominion (except by its consent)
• Had own economic and foreign
policies
• Yet bond remained strong
• Support Brits in WWII
France: The 1920s and the Coming of the
Depression
• WWI left France very unstable
• Physical destruction of war, public finance, fear of
Germany’s rise again
• Government was run by coalitions of parties of
conservative Right in 1919-mid 20s
– Supported by business, army, church
• Radical Socialist gained control in 1924-26
– Was a party of the moderate Left
– Led by Edouard Herriot
• Supported by lower classes, small business, farmers
• Supported progressive legislation but not increased
taxes
• Despite the name, it supported free enterprise,
private property
• Staunchly for civil liberties, anti-clerical
Hostility to the Republic
• Radical Socialist and Socialists
• Had formed a coalition
• But differed greatly on economic
policies
• Socialist had been weakened during
the 1920s when orthodox Socialist
left and formed the French
Communist party
• Fringe on Left and Right became
antidemocratic hostile to
parliamentary republic
• Left included communist who sat in
Par
• Right included royalist (Action
Française)
– Noisy pressure group
Poincare’s Measures
• Raymond Poincare
• Major figure of moderate conservative
right
• Sent troops into Ruhr in 1923 to collect
unpaid German reparations
• “saved” the franc
• Depended on reparations being paid to
finance reconstruction following WWI
• When Germans didn’t pay, public debt
increased and the franc’s value dropped
– Also suffered from war expenses, loss
of foreign investment (Russia), tax
evasion
Poincare’s Measures Continued
• National Union ministry
– Led by Poincare
• Issued new taxes, collected them, cut
spending, balanced the budget
– This stabilized the Franc
• Repudiated prewar debt but
hyperinflation was stopped
• 1926-29 was period of economic
prosperity
• New factories, production increased,
tourism increased
• Workers and unions did not share in
the prosperity
– Their interests were largely ignored
Great Depression in France
• Arrived later & less severe than
US, Germany
• Trade declined
• unemployment reached 1
million
– Some were able to work part-time
• Government ministries were
rapidly rotated
• 5 different ministries in 1933
Depression Ferment and the Popular Front
• Right winged (Fascist type)
“leagues” appeared
• Aped German and Italian
models
• Financed by wealthy
industrialists
• Older Right wingers also
appeared
• Colonel de le Rocque’s Croix
de Feu and Action Francaise
• Antirepublican,
antidemocratic, monarchist
Scandals
• Stavisky got officials of city of
Bayonne to issue worthless bonds
• After exposed his apparent suicide
was viewed as a ‘silencing’ by
corrupt officials
• Normally only corrupt officials
would be recalled
• But Right wingers attempted to
label entire republic as corrupt and
called for its destruction
• 2/1934 fascist gathered at Place de
la Concorde and tried to take over
the Chamber
• Several killed and hundreds
injured
The Emergence of the French Socialist
• Backlash came as unionists, liberals,
democrats, socialists, and even
communists were outraged
– Communist didn’t like the republic
but they hated fascism more
• Socialist groups joined together and
formed the Popular Front (AKA. The
French Socialists)
• Pledged to defend republic against
fascism, called for labor reform, relief
from Depression
• Became leading party
• Their leader, Leon Blum became premier
of coalition cabinet of Socialists and
Radical Socialists
The Popular Front and After
• Blum’s reforms (French New Deal)
– 40 hour workweek, paid vacations, collective
bargaining
– Led to enormous growth in trade union
membership
• 1-5 million in a year
• Armaments and aviation industry began to
become nationalized
• Bank of France under government control
– Broke the power of the “Two hundred
families”
• Labor dispute procedures created to arbitrate
• Farmers income subsidized
• Rightist hated him:
– Said he would become a Lenin, pointed out
that he was Jewish
The Overthrow of Blum’s Government
• As France’s production slows (with promise of
40 hr wk) Germany is rearming at full
production
• Which is it? Reform or Rearm?
• Employers
– shut down factory for 2 weeks (rather than
have 40 hr wk)
– Passed new costs on to consumers (their
employees)
• Blum criticized for not aiding Spanish Popular
Front Gov. (as Civil War broke out in 7/1936)
• Blum’s gov was overthrown by the Senate in
1937
• Edouard Daladier formed a conservative
ministry and focused on the looming crisis with
Hitler
• Popular Front dissolved and workers lost
reforms
Western Europe and Depression
• GB, France, Western Euro
never really recovered from
the Great Depression
• Production decreased and
Europe’s dependence on the
US was exposed
• Birth rates fell (marriage was
postponed)
• Western Europe was in a
decline