Jul 2, 2006
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Robert Higgs - 7/3/2006
On the pervasive influence of the German economic planning during World War I, see the wonderful article by T. Hunt Tooley, "The Hindenburg Program of 1916: A Central Experiment in Wartime Planning," QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS 2 (Summer 1999): 51-62 (also available online).
Robert Higgs - 7/3/2006
I will not mention any of my own writings along these lines, but I draw your attention to Jytte Klausen's WAR AND WELFARE: EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES, 1945 TO THE PRESENT (St. Martin's, 1998). Klausen argues, with emphasis on Great Britain, Sweden, and Germany but with some attention to other countries, that the command economies of World War II provided a variety of institutional and ideological prerequisites for the postwar welfare states. The gist is, first, that during the war the government "bought off" the workers with various benefits and consultations designed to discourage their dissent and to keep them on the job despite wartime privations and, second, during the war many "private" associations, including business and labor associations, became keeply involved in the operation of the wartime control apparatus, became politically entrenched, and therefore succeeded in preserving their privileges after the war ended.
Similar arguments are made in detail for the United States and World War I by Ronald Schaffer, AMERICA IN THE GREAT WAR: THE RISE OF THE WAR WELFARE STATE (Oxford University Press, 1991).
David T. Beito - 7/3/2006
Interestingly, the "war socialism" of Germany seems to have greatly influenced both the Communists and fascists. Lenin apparently cited it with approval when he formulated "War Communism.".
Jonathan Dresner - 7/2/2006
I make that point, though not with so much flair, when I teach the history of fascism in Europe (and fascist movements elsewhere, as they were rife): the national unity and full employment of Total War created a sort of nostalgia which very much contributed to the success of parties offering to replicate the experiment (without the wholesale slaughter, at least at first).