Projects
Building Dictatorships under Axis Rule. War, Military occupation and Political Regimes
Researcher-in-charge: António Costa Pinto
Abstract
Military occupation represents ‘the maximum level of influence based on coercion (…) opening the possibility of installing political structures or procedures that can guarantee mid-range influence on the regime’s character’. Nevertheless, even under Axis rule, the institutional design of dictatorships by their authoritarian elites was influenced by different models and political families, often with the relative watchful indifference of the occupant, but at times also with hostility and intervention. The nature of direct or indirect occupation was also diverse in strategy and type. The purpose of this collective rsearch project is to analyse how under Axis rule, the dynamics of the institution-building of political regimes of occupation under the direct or indirect control of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy was characterized by varied tensions and forced compromises between native fascists, conservatives and radical-right movements and elites, with the occupier far from being a political actor with a unified strategy of regime promotion. This project examines how the complicated relationship between radical right, conservatives, and fascists were present in the institutional crafting of new regimes. Military occupation opened a window of opportunity for the takeover of power by different segments of these authoritarian and fascist elites and the tension and forced pacts between different projects of institutionalization of dictatorships were a clear sign of this dynamic process. In this context, the debates and the praxis of the construction of new dictatorial political systems are analysed, looking to identify the design of their institutions, the segments of the political elites that hegemonize them, the diffusion models present and the attitudes of the Axis powers before them.
Other Researchers:
Catherine Horel is a Research Director at C.N.R.S., CETOBAC, Paris.
David Serfass is Assistant Professor of Chinese and East Asian studies at Inalco (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations, Paris)
Enriketa Pandelejmoni is an associate professor, University of Tirana.
Goffredo Adinolfi, ISCTE
Goran Miljan researcher at the Hugo Valentin Centre, Department of History, Uppsala University.
Marc-Olivier Baruch, is a research Professor at the EHESS, Paris, after many years at the CNRS.
Miloslav Szabó is an associate professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia.
Radka Šustrová is a Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellow at University of Vienna.
Rastko Lompar is a research associate at the Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Stein U. Larsen is an Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway.
Thomas David DuBois Professor in the School of Chinese Language and Literature (Wenxueyuan) at Beijing Normal University.
Start
01 February 2024End
01 July 2026Associated Missions
10 institutions involved
Outputs
Case Studies in Europen and Asia; Book; Event.
Funding and Institution
Ten (10) institutions involved