Compare and Contrast the foreign/domestic policies of one right wing and one left wing single party state leader.

International Baccalaureate History

Mao

Domestic →First Five Year Plan

The Five Year Plan was an attempt by China to boost her industry and set her on the path to become a world class power.
When Mao came to power in 1949, China was many years behind the industrial nations of the world. Mao wanted this to change.
On an international level, Mao’s China had the same status as Stalin’s Russia. Communism was feared throughout the western world and here was the world’s most populated nation turning to communism.
Influenced by the Russian engineers, and also by the success of Stalin’s Five Year Plans, China introduced her own Five Year Plan in 1953.
Heavy industry was targeted as being in need of major reform.
The Five Year Plan attempted to tackle steel, coal and iron production.
As in the Russian model, each factory or mine was given a target to achieve.
Failure to meet a target was the equivalent of failing your people.
Steel , pig iron and coal → surpassed their targets for their production levels
Oil, cement and chemical fertiliser → never met it target output production

Domestic → Cultural Revolution
Domestic → The Great Leap Forward

Communes were made up of many families ( often as many as five thousand families)
The commune owned everything, tools, animals, and land.
People worked for the commune, not for themselves.
The commune provided schools, nurseries and healthcare so workers could work instead of taking care of babies and older parents
They had back-yard furnaces which helped in the production of steel
Steel, coal, chemicals, timber, cement etc all showed huge rises
Grain and cotton production also showed major increases in production.

Failures

However, in 1959, things started to go wrong. Political decisions/beliefs took precedence over commonsense and communes faced the task of doing things which they were incapable of achieving. Party officials would order the impossible and commune leaders, who knew what their commune was capable of doing or not, could be charged with being a "bourgeois reactionary" if he complained. Such a charge would lead to prison.
farm machinery fell to pieces when used
thousands of workers were injured after working long hours
Steel produced by the backyard furnaces was too weak
Backyard production had taken many ...

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Failures

However, in 1959, things started to go wrong. Political decisions/beliefs took precedence over commonsense and communes faced the task of doing things which they were incapable of achieving. Party officials would order the impossible and commune leaders, who knew what their commune was capable of doing or not, could be charged with being a "bourgeois reactionary" if he complained. Such a charge would lead to prison.
farm machinery fell to pieces when used
thousands of workers were injured after working long hours
Steel produced by the backyard furnaces was too weak
Backyard production had taken many workers away from their fields
Desperately needed food was not being harvested.
The excellent growing weather of 1958 was followed by a very poor growing year in 1959. Some parts of China were hit by floods. In other growing areas, drought was a major problem
between 1959 and 1962, it is thought that 20 million people died of starvation or diseases related to starvation
The backyard furnaces also used too much coal and China’s rail system, which depended on coal driven trains, suffered accordingly
Mao was popular with the people but he still had to resign from his position as Head of State (though he remained in the powerful Party Chairman position)
In late 1960, they abandoned the Great Leap Forward.
Private ownership of land was reinstated
Peasants also had the incentive to produce as much spare food as was possible as they could sell any spare that they had a market

Domestic → The Long March

Mao leads CCP (approx. 100 000 people) to Yanan. 6 000 mile-march, occupies 16 cities, daily skirmishes (small battles) against GMD.Avg. 16 miles a day. 80% losses. BUT: CCP now had core of hardened veterans, had acquired peasant support, built legend and Mao had secured position inside the CCP.

Foreign → Sino- Soviet Pact
Foreign → Japanese Invasion of China
Foreign → Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance

The only country who would want a treaty with China was the Soviet Union. In December 1949, Mao met Stalin in Moscow
They signed the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance.
This treaty gave China money and technical assistance to modernise her industry.
Though the money received from Russia was minimal ($300 million over five years), Russia did provide 10,000 engineers to boost China’s industry and therefore her economy.

Mussolini

Domestic → Battle of the Births

Aim: create greater population for Italy ( relates to the whole Rome, great empire, to become need greater population)

Domestic → Battle of the Grain

Aim: to stop being so dependent on importing so much grain from other countries
Mussolini wanted Italy to become self-sufficient
This called for mass production of grain in Italy
Grain production rose dramatically, and imports fell
Also cereal production doubled
Although grain production rose, the farmers forgot about harvesting other crops (meat, dairy etc.)
Although grain imports feel by 75%, every other crop and animal import rose
As a result the Italian diet suffered
And overall all it was partly a success, as Italy became self-sufficient in cereals, but not on fertilisers

Domestic → Battle of the Lira

Mussolini decided to pronounce Italy's currency, the Lira, automatically worth more than its value in relation to world markets
Mussolini hoped this would reduce inflation and show that Fascism could bring stability
Mussolini also hoped this would show that Italy had a strong currency because of it was a strong nation
This did not work out for very long at all, as other countries deemed Italy's currency decree invalid and refused to honour it
However, the move did show the authority of the regime and boost prestige
On the other hand, it harmed the economy by hitting exports as now Italian goods cost more money abroad
This policy also undermined smaller firms, which were taken over by larger ones
The Battle for the Lira helped industries such as chemical and steel which were dependent on imports and caused deflation
The government was forced to impose a 20% cut in wages and in 1936 to devalue the Lira
Although this policy seems like a failure, it forced Italy into autarky and helped to centralize Italian industry and thereby the Italian economy

Domestic → Education

The 1923 Education Act stressed the importance of a humanist education and suggested that philosophy be taught at all levels
Mussolini wanted more emphasise to be put on discipline and loyalty to the State, and less on individual differences
Text books came under the scrutiny of the party (censorship / propaganda)
Children were expected to be part of a Boy or Girl Scout equivalent group (“Balilla” for boys and “Little Italian Girls” for girls.)
Much of the propaganda had little actual effect on those who were subject to it
The teachers were taught to educate their students in a strictly fascist manner, but though the related activities were done, they had little ideological effect
Also, certain subjects, particularly history suffered
Most books were banned
And single text books became compulsory and that book was full of twisted facts and propaganda motivated material
There was a 20% illiteracy rate in Italy during his regime

Domestic → Relationship with the Church

There was some hostility between Papacy and State Government (struggle of power)
The Lateran treaties

Gave the Pope the right to 108.7 acres of the Vatican City
Restored temporal power (right to rule as king over area) within his realm (Vatican City)
And designated him the right to spiritual power over men’s hearts/minds

Successes:

Improved the relationship with the church
clearly designated power and delineated church limits in regard to church marriage
And gives power for the church to have education in public schools
It satisfied the Popes desire to have temporal power and gave the church a large amount of money

Failures:

Relations did not remain totally friendly
It became clear that these agreements were merely ways to persuade the pope to stay out of the way
Pope Pius had issues with it