All of these countries have democratically elected a female political leader in either the twentieth or twenty-first century, except Italy. Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister in the United Kingdom during the 1980s; Tansu Ciller was Prime Minister of Turkey during the 1990s; Angela Merkel is the current Prime Minister of Germany; Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo served as Prime Minister of Portugal in 1979. Italy has never elected a female political leader. The same is true of Spain, Sweden, and Greece. 

Since the end of the colonial era the economic disparity between the Western world and the developing world has widened significantly. It is tempting to look at the billions of dollars in aid and investment and wonder at how that is possible, but that ignores much of the picture. The developing world is still routinely abused by the Western world that still follows the same mantra of “markets and resources” that guided it during the colonial era. Massive growth in the wealth of the financial elite of Europe has not seen a commensurate increase in the wealth of developing nations.

All of these leaders are closely associated with charisma and many of them were beloved by large sections of the population of the countries they ruled; however, the “cult of personality” is only intimately associated with Josef Stalin. By a “cult of personality,” we mean that Stalin took on a larger-than-life nature (think of the North Korean leader today)—his decisions were unquestionable, his character treated as infallible. After Stalin died and Nikita Khrushchev took over as General Secretary, he gave a speech in which he lamented and derided Stalin’s “cult of personality.”

It is certainly true that the allied powers were fearful of the expansion of Communism and the Soviet Union, but they were less fearful of direct invasion than they were of ideological revolution. The Ruhr Valley was the industrial center of Europe (and in many ways still is). It was a vital cog in the wheel of Western Capitalism and the fear was that Germany, as well as much of the rest of Western Europe, would be consumed by Soviet expansion if West Germany were left to deal with the destruction of World War II alone.

Social hierarchy in Nazi Germany was primarily based on racial assumptions about the natural capabilities of various ethnicities. The Aryan people were elevated as the only “true Germans,” and in conquered countries where Aryans existed, they were comparably well treated by the invading Nazis. Slavs, Poles, and Russians were considered lesser than Aryans and were forced into work camps. Jews, Roma, and other minorities considered undesirable by the regime were sent to concentration camps by the millions, where they were executed in systematic, bureaucratic fashion.

Mussolini came to power in the early 1920s during a time of massive social unrest and economic stagnation in Italy. His Fascist regime gained the support of the wealthy business owners who feared the rise of communism during the post-World War I economic depression. Mussolini's anti-communist rhetoric and huge emphasis on social order helped to reassure business owners and the wealthy elite that social order would be preserved.

Mussolini’s Fascist government was primarily run as a political organization of the most powerful corporations in Italy. This elevated the status of those associated with these corporations, but lowered the status of just about everyone else. Democracy was gradually quashed and the rights of the common people were dramatically reduced.

All of these countries were interlinked by global capitalism at the outbreak of depression in 1930 except for the Soviet Union, which was outside of the system and run by a “command economy.” The Soviet Union not only was least affected, but in fact thrived during the Great Depression and experienced massive industrial and economic growth.

Intermarriage between Jews and Germans had long been criminalized (since 1935) by the time of the Wannsee Conference. Likewise, almost all Jewish-owned businesses had closed due to official government policies persecuting Jewish business owners in the 1930s. By 1942, Hitler had apparently decided to implement the “Final Solution,” whereby all Jews in Nazi occupied Europe would be transported to concentration camps in Poland to be murdered by the millions (most estimates put the figure at around six million Jews). The Wannsee Conference was convened in early 1942 in order to ensure cooperation from the various administrative bodies that would need to oversee this complicated and horrific plan.

The status of workers in Fascist Germany, as in Fascist Italy, declined during the early years of Hitler’s reign. Striking was outlawed and factory owners were given almost dictatorial control over the lives of workers.