Waste Land: A World in Permanent Crisis

by Robert D. Kaplan

Those dynasties were reactionary and lazily corrupt. But their rules, which had lasted for centuries, bore the mark of stability and legitimacy. And because they were inherently legitimate, their cruelties borne of autocratic tendencies could remain within acceptable bounds. They were dictatorial without being totalitarian. That is, they generally protected minorities and allowed a political breathing space for opposing views. But because they were all on the losing side in World War I, and headed political systems that had been in decline even before the war, these monarchical and imperial orders were dashed into oblivion at the 1919 Paris Peace Treaty. The result, in a phrase, was the Beer Hall Putsch and events like it, which originated from an utter vacuum of legitimate political authority, that allowed thugs and bullies to run riot, invading the political space.