DICTATORSHIP IN EUROPE

Hokitika Guardian, 22 April 1927, Page 4

DICTATORSHIP IN EUROPE

■'HENCE CAAIE IT AND WHITHER ■ IS IT LEADING? (By CHARLES PETRIE, in a London Paper.) The suppression of the revolt In Portugal marks the triumph ot another dictatorship, and so common has tills form of government now become that President Wilson's famous remark . about making the world sale for democracy seems little more than an echo from the past. Indeed, recent events have lent considerable colour to the view that after a great war the ideals of the vanquished are generally adopted hv their conquerors: sueh was certainly the ease after the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, and history .-iceins likely to repeat itself to-day. when the I ron Chancellor who made the German Empire is the pattern upon which so many European statesmen are hastening to model themselves. On a!! sides Rousseau is being abandoned lor Nietzsche, and far Irom the end of this movement being in sight, the latter appears to he still in its early stages. A French writer, AT. Charles Benoist. who lias studied ibis phenomenon, has come to the conclusion that it is the natural consequence of the war. lor In* says: “ What has triumphed is neither the democratic principle or even oligarchical control, hut monarchical organisation in the- etymological sense.” Startling as tliis statement may at first sight appear, it cannot in re:-!-', he disputed when one remembers the power and prestige enjoyed hv such men as Air Lloyd George and Al. Cle-im-moini in tin- later stages of the struggle, alter the system of their predecessors, based upon the principles d<-ar to nmoteenth-ceiilury Liberalism, had broken down. It was then proved that in a crisis a dictatorship was more efficient than Parliamentary government. and the lesson was not forgotten, especially in those countries where representative institutions had never taken any very deep root. As llu- great eonllict began to recede into the distance new problems commenced to force themselves up-m the public attention, anil as they were chiefly of an

economic nature it is not surprising that the various legislative bodies, which had come into existence in very different circumstances, proved unable to deal with them: the fialance was nowhere maintained between employer and employed, so il is small wondoithat the ordinary citizen, with the memory of the war still fresh in his mind, turned to the dictator as tinonly possible guide out of the- maze in which he found hirnsclf war lering.

-- Since the accession to power of the first dictator. Signor .Mussolini, in October. 1022. tin- movement towards ‘d autocracy has spread all over the v world, and if has naturally assumed :l different forms in diiiVrent countries. lint it. can he.-* he studied where it lias. ’■ and in those where it has not, opera t- ■ ’ ed under the cover of some legal and [K-rmaiient form, such as that provided by the existence of a hereditary mon--11 a'reh.v. Of tin- first tyt r. - oi dictatorship 11 Spain and Italy are the ino.-.l uoltdiie 11 examples. In respect of the former, although the present lorm of govern- ”' iH'-iil has now I •-•«-11 e-iabli-ltei 1 for 11 iivi r ictve wars, it is a mailer ol dispute v. in : her King Allon-u governs 11 ih rough G-.-neral I’rimo do Rivera or 11 the dicta ior ruins in the naim/ of the ’■ ittotiaielt. hut in either ease the result is the same, for al! the weight and " Ot th - i ere l.eltind the " di-a alo, s',ip. It Italy Senior .Mnssonuteli what the Mayors of the Pela"were !o (In- later Merot ingiiiii*. or (he ~ Shoguns for several (enturies ti the -Japanese emperors, hut he has nevertheless eiili-led the forte of tradition on Ids side, and so is not compelf-d to 7" rely upon lit - sword alone. In Persia the die!ntor. alter exeri ising his power in the more of the Shah, hr:, moonte 1 e the throm- its.lf, hut so IT.r tliis is ticanlv instance ol its kind, possibly bonnes.- the overthrow of one dynasty and the foundation of another in its v plate is m-oe difficult in Europe titan it is in the East. The position of a dictator in a nmm- ,_ itally Rcpid-lii-an State is a far more ,1 perilous one. for ah hough Disraeli d<(J dared that mankind can he governed |, by tradition or hv the sword, history v shows t!mt it is not long before a n nation ht-eomes restive under the laty ter form of government: the adminix- (| tration of Cromwell, for example, was e more efficient limn that of Charles I!.. i hut the Stuart’s was the more popular. ,s Alustafa Kemal has so far managed to v maintain himself in Turkey, hut in Asia loree counts more- than tradition, and General Penguins failed when iie attempted similar methods in Greece, while the Portuguese rising against 1- General Carmona is hut further proof • i ol the danger to which a dictatorship s is in these circumstances exposed, I even when it has the powerful support d j ot the Church and the (fading classes. -j I n Russia the dictatorship is styled - that ol the proletariat, and so long as ii R can retain its hold upon the urban population it can presumably continue to defy the hostility of the peasants, although they account for 00 per cent, ol the inhabitants of the country : on the other hand, .Marshal Pilsudski'* i position is none too secure in Poland. ( while the past history of thus form m ; government in South America does not s encourage optimism as to the duration i ol those examples of it now in exis- ; lenec there. It would seem, therefore, that any examination of the existing dictator- • ships can only lend to the conclusion that in their present form they are essentially temporary, though what is to take tneir place is by no means clear. 'Where they work under cover <«i a monarchy their disappearance may occur with the minimum of disturbance to the national life, hut where they are, as Louis XIV. claimed to he. to all intents and purposes the State itself, they may well drag the latter down with them in their fall. This problem, too. is not one for the distant future, inr several dictators are already rcalisI ing the truth of Cavour’s remark that one can do anything with bayonets c-x. 1 eepl sit upon them, and the necessity j ol regularising their position will prove i j the acid test of their ability to rule, j or. to use a commonplace metaphor, it will separate tin- sheep from the goats. I ‘ Ihe dictatorships which will ovontu-1 ( ally survive are likely to he those which continue to exercise that function of arbiter, to the need for which they owe their existence. As the j syndicalist idea of dividing a population j according to tis occupation rather than to class or to geography gains ground, ( | as it seems destined to do, the need , for some mediator between conflicting t interests will he felt the more, and ~ that office can only he filled by a die- v , tutor. Just as the medireral kingship n arose out of the necessity for someone e who would in the interests of the com- „ munity hold the balance between priest t .. and baron, so will a new monarchy a arise capable of mediating in the con- c .j diets of Labour and Capital, and ot town and country. Where the dicta- fi, torship can fill this “ role.” it will he r< --.Perl,ml under some other name -nor- j.