Economic and Political Policies of Authoritarian States
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Question
What does autarky mean?
Answer
Economic self-sufficiency — producing everything at home to avoid relying on imports, especially valuable in wartime.
Question
What was the aim of the Nazi Four-Year Plan (1936)?
Answer
To make Germany self-sufficient (autarky) and rearmed, ready for war. Run by Goering; autarky was never fully achieved.
Question
What were the Soviet Five-Year Plans?
Answer
Centralised plans from 1928 setting industrial targets. They drove rapid growth in heavy industry but neglected quality and consumer goods.
Question
What is collectivisation?
Answer
Forcing peasants off private farms onto large state-run collective farms so the state controls food output.
Question
What was the Holodomor (1932-33)?
Answer
A man-made famine in Ukraine caused by Stalin's forced collectivisation and grain seizures; millions died.
Question
What was the Great Leap Forward (1958-62)?
Answer
Mao's drive to rapidly industrialise China; targets were faked and it caused a catastrophic famine with tens of millions of deaths.
Question
Aims vs results — what is the core exam skill?
Answer
Judge whether a regime's stated aims (autarky, modernisation, control) were actually achieved, weighing successes against the human cost.
Question
Compare Soviet and Chinese agricultural policy results.
Answer
Both aimed at state control of food. Soviet collectivisation caused the Holodomor (1932-33); the Great Leap Forward caused an even larger famine. Both: aim met, result catastrophic.
Question
What political policies secured authoritarian rule?
Answer
Building a one-party state, centralising power, eliminating rivals (e.g. Hitler's Enabling Act 1933), and controlling courts, media and unions.
Question
Why must Paper 2 use two states from different regions?
Answer
The topic requires two authoritarian states each from a DIFFERENT IB region (e.g. USSR=Europe, Mao's China=Asia) to access full markbands.
Question
How should you structure a Paper 2 comparative essay?
Answer
Thematically — run each theme (e.g. industrialisation, agriculture) across BOTH states with evidence, then judge, rather than narrating each state separately.
Question
Give a one-party-state example outside Europe and Asia.
Answer
Castro's Cuba (the Americas) — after 1959 he removed rivals and built a one-party state, useful for a different-region pairing.
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Full study notes for Economic and Political Policies of Authoritarian States
Topic 15.3 hub
Aims and results of policies
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