Why did authoritarian rule emerge?

The concentration of political power in a small group or one individual, sitting at one end of a spectrum with democratic processes at the other.

Role of ideas, social factors, role of conflict, economic factors — usually working together, not alone.

Mass unemployment after 1929 destroyed faith in the Weimar Republic; Nazi vote share jumped from 2.6% (1928) to 37.3% (July 1932).

Its 'war guilt' clause and reparations let the Nazis blame national humiliation on the Weimar government, fuelling ultranationalism.

The middle class (Mittelstand) — small shopkeepers, farmers, clerks — feared losing status to Depression bankruptcy and to communism.

Japan's invasion (1937–45) weakened the Nationalist government, and the Chinese Civil War (1927–49, resumed 1946) let the Communists build territorial power.

The peasantry — over 80% of the population — won over through land redistribution during the Jiangxi and Yan'an base-area years.

Marxism-Leninism adapted by Mao (later called Mao Zedong Thought) — a peasant-based revolutionary path to socialism.

Germany: economic collapse + national humiliation + a fearful middle class mobilised by ultranationalist ideology. China: prolonged war + peasant hardship mobilised by Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology.

Both combined a genuine crisis (economic or military) with an ideology that offered a clear enemy and a mobilised social base.

Guerrilla war against Batista's corrupt, US-backed regime let Castro's 26th of July Movement seize power amid widespread poverty and resentment.

Cause and consequence — central to explaining why authoritarian regimes emerged.