ollowing World War One, there was a revival of traditional authoritarian regimes,especially in Eastern Europe. By 1938, of all the central and eastern European countries,only Czechoslovakia remained true to liberal political ideals. It has been remarked that thereason for this development was the perception that liberal democracy was a failure. Itwas not "made" for Eastern European nations. These nations lacked a tradition ofself-government but they did have lengthy traditions of ethnic conflict as well as a steadygrowth in nationalism. As agrarian nations, the large landowners and the Church opposedany efforts at land reform. These countries also contained a small and relatively weakmiddle class. In a way, the 18th century seemed to have ignored these countries. Finally,for nations such as Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Austria and Estonia, it was the GreatDepression that dashed any hopes for a liberal government based on the western model. Although many of these central and eastern European countries would adopt fascistcharacteristics, their general aim in doing so was not to become fascist themselves.Instead, their aim was to maintain the established order. They wanted to avoid revolutionand more important, they wanted to avoid another world war. Modern totalitarian regimes made their appearance with the total effort required by theGreat War. The reason for this is quite simple -- war required all institutions tosubordinate their interests to one objective at all costs: victory. The individual had to makesacrifices and so their freedoms, whatever they might have been, were constantly reducedby increasing government intervention. The invisible hand of Adam Smith had to bereplaced by the visible hand. Governments could not longer remain idle hoping that some"laissez-faire" mentality would carry them through the day. No. Governments had tointervene and the great event which made this notion of intervention a necessity, was theGreat War. Bey...
