Voting for Hitler and Stalin Elections under 20th Century Dictatorships

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 absolutist state governance, Voting for Hitler and Stalin thoroughly investigates the remarkable, paradoxical phenomenon of dictatorial elections, revealing the many ways they transcended mere propaganda.

Hedwig Richter is a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Greifswald, Germany. Ralph Jessen is professor of modern history at the University of Cologne, Germany.