Economic+policies+Mao+and+Hitler


 * E conomic Policies of Single Party State Leaders **

 **General characteristics single-party state leader's economic policies: **
 * All economic goals are state orientated and directed to help the state/the ruler gain popularity among the general population
 * The leaders use the economy as a tool to achieve their political/ideological goals
 * Their economies' are in some way state-directed/planned (ex. Nazi 4-Year Plan, Stalin's 5-Year Plan, Mao’s Great Leap Forward)
 * The leaders aim to gain popularity for their regime by solving economic problems facing or that faced the general population in the past
 * **These could come in the form of: **
 *  Nationalization of foreign industries/land
 * Increasing employment/aiming to decrease or get rid of unemployment entirely
 * Large state-funded projects/constructing infrastructure
 * Improving military or defense/re-arming military
 * The single-party state leaders' main objective for their economic policies are to support the state's/regimes' political or ideological influence or power among the citizens
 * The success or failure of the single-part state leaders' economic policies will directly effect how the leaders' other goals are carried out by the regime, and to what extent they will be successful

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 27px;"> **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hitler **
 * **Hitler's 3 main economic policies/goals he worked for were:**
 * 1) Reduce unemployment among German population
 * 2) Expand the German military
 * 3) Regain territorial losses which resulted from the Treaty of Versailles


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Reducing Unemployment **
 * Hitler initiated huge state-run public programs to help create new industries or projects for people to work on
 * Included construction of the Autobahn, the first intra-state highway system in the world
 * With increased popularity of his Nazi party, Hitler created a very large bureaucracy to create jobs
 * Starting to prosecute/incarcerate minorities, most notably Jews, which opened up jobs commonly held by the Jewish population in Germany

Unemployment in Germany before Hitler's rule was huge, as a result of the weak economy during the Weimar Republic, which meant solving the unemployment issue was at the top of Hitler's economic goals
 * When Hitler came to power, there were 6 million people unemployed in Germany, by 1936 unemployment was less than 2 million and by 1939, there was no unemployment
 * Getting rid of Germany's unemployment problem not only made Hitler and his Nazi party very popular in Germany, but also calmed people's thoughts about Germany turning into a Socialist/Communist state, which many people were very worried about
 * Although Hitler's economic policies were similar to Communist policies (nationalizing industries, ect) he was a very strong anti-Communist, which added to his popularity among the Germans


 * Expand/Re-arm Military**
 * Despite going against orders of the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler began to increase the size of the German military **
 * Created a need for new armaments/supplies for the military, once again creating more jobs and industries in the economy

**Regain Territory/Become less reliable on foreign countries** **Other Economic Policies**
 * Hitler came to an agreement with France to "share" the rich mining region in French possession, known as the Saar, which went against the Treaty of Versailles
 * ** This allowed Germany to harness natural resources to help supply their heavy industries **
 * Hitler taking over the Saar signified the single-party state leader economic policy of nationalizing foreign land
 * Another goal of Hitler's was to make Germany less reliant on other countries, and so he aimed to increase exports, while reducing imports
 * ** Controlled the production of all the industries based on what was needed and what wasn't needed **
 * ** Moved workers around to different parts of Germany based on where labor was needed **
 * ** Controlled market prices and living expenses to keep costs of living low for Germans **
 * ** Forced foreigners to spend their money in Germany while not allowing them to use money in their bank accounts within Germany to be spent anywhere else **
 * ** Refused to pay cash for foreign goods until they accepted German goods **
 * Abolished trade unions, which angered some workers, but Hitler compensated by creating benefit programs/controlling living costs


 * Mao**
 * Wanted to use economic policies to gain popularity
 * Redistributed land to the peasantry to so they would support his regime (4/5 of China's population at that time lived in rural areas, Mao wanted them to view the revolution favorably)
 * Peasants farmed their own land, but shared equipment and animals on their farms
 * Aimed to increase the standard of living for China's population
 * Wanted to de-centralize economy by establishing independent local communes
 * **Control all aspects of the economy/production**
 * Adapted Soviet model of industrialization
 * Included emphasis on heavy industry (steel production, electricity power plants, machine tool plants, ect)
 * Increased industrial output more than 1.5X from 1949 to 1952
 * Helped cut unemployment in cities by half
 * Increase standard of living of all citizens


 * **Policies fail and have large consequences on citizens
 * Mao's 5-year plan's (modeled after Soviets) failed
 * Set unrealistic, superficial goals which were not met, and often hindered the quality of the products being made
 * Great Leap Forward also was unsuccessful
 * Caused grain famine because of peasants not producing enough crops to supply the state's needs
 * Forced Mao to get rid of collectivization of crops and allow peasants to sell crops at market prices
 * Also had to allow some private industry in areas where the gov. was unable to run successfully
 * Purged Opposition
 * Mao purged so-called "intellectuals" or "rightists"


 * Analysis**
 * Hitler and Mao's similarities
 * Both Hitler and Mao use their economic policies to help them gain popularity among the citizens (decreasing unemployment, redistribution of land)
 * Used force to help implement their policies and/or purge opposition
 * Had government-created economic plans (Nazi 4-year plan, Great Leap Forward, 5-year plan)
 * Nationalized industries to try to increase efficiency (collectivization)
 * Tried to control costs of certain parts of the economy
 * Both had special emphasis on increasing heavy industry
 * Had goals to reduce unemployment and succeeded
 * Ultimately failed in some or all aspects of their economic policies


 * Differences
 * Hitler created more state-run programs/projects to help employ citizens, whereas Mao mostly took over pre-existing sectors of the economy
 * Hitler aimed to re-arm military and gear the economy towards increasing the size and power of the military
 * Mao was a Communist and based his economic policies towards those of the Soviet Union, but Hitler was very anti-Communist, although many of his policies could be viewed to a certain extent as Communist
 * Mao got rid of bureaucracy whereas Hitler expanded the bureaucracy to help delegate all his tasks/duties