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Voting for Hitler and Stalin – Elections under 20th Century Dictatorships
Author(s): Ralph Jessen (Author)
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press
- Publication Date: 13 April 2012
- Language: English
- Print length: 380 pages
- ISBN-10: 3593394898
- ISBN-13: 9783593394893
Book Description
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 totalitarian state governance, “Voting for Hitler and Stalin” thoroughly investigates the remarkable, paradoxical phenomenon of dictatorial elections, revealing the many ways they transcended mere propaganda.
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Ralph Jessen is professor of modern history at the University of Cologne, Germany. Hedwig Richter is a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Greifswald, Germany.
