AHC/PC: Great Depression leads to authoritarianism in the U.S.?

Could it, in fact, happen here?


  • Total voters
    23
This is one of my favorite AH cliches, but I'm curious as to how plausible it actually is.

During the Great Depression, could the U.S. federal government have been taken over by some sort of dictator, junta or radical political party? It seems like the balance of power makes this difficult - look at the trouble F.D.R. Administration (not a dictatorship, but a robust Executive branch) had accomplishing his agenda in the Depression of OTL.

P.O.D. can be as early as 1900 (or possibly earlier, if the need be) but I'd like to avoid any major butterflies prior to 1929. I'd like this timeline to be semi-recognizable before it goes horribly wrong.
 

Greenville

Banned
Could I see something like a fascist or military walking into the White House successfully, no. Can I see civil disorder, rioting, martial law and similar, yes. Could it lead to a militarized nation, yes.

This probably won't happen because a weak administration can simply over removed from Congress and the White House in an election. Even if it means amending the Constitution first or states recalling all of their members of Congress for inaction over the depression, it would go this way first. It's much easier for the American populace to remove the system in a democratic process instead of violence. Easy enough to avoid a revolt, however. The revenge will come through sweeping legislation in the federal government to reinvigorate the economy and prevent the crisis from happening again.
 
Last edited:

samcster94

Banned
This probably won't happen because a weak administration can simply over removed from Congress and the White House in an election. Even if states recalled all of their members of Congress for inaction over the depression, it would go this way first.

There could be rioting and violence in certain places against American authorities. It's much easier for the American populace to remove the system in a democratic process instead of violence. Easy enough to avoid a revolt, however. The revenge will come through sweeping legislation in the federal government to reinvigorate the economy and prevent the crisis from happening again.
Well, nobody said it had to be long or successful. The authoritarian period could last less than 2 years and not be a full dictatorship and it'd qualify for filling this AHC.
 
I once wrote that if the New Deal had failed politically, the most likely alternative for America would not be revolution or civil war, fascism or communism, or even Huey Long or Upton Sinclair. It would probably be Arthur Vandenberg or Alf Landon. I joked that this was the most boring fact in alternate history...

(The point is not that America is unique, and that therefore it "can't happen here." Rather, the point is that *most* well-established democracies--democracy in Germany and Italy and Spain was hardly "well-established"--did in fact muddle through in the 1930's, often under center-right governments like the UK under the National Government, Australia under Lyons, etc. Even France was governed by centrist or conservative governments for most of the 1930's, the Popular Front being a relatively brief interlude.)
 
I'd say that you need a POD at latest during the Civil War for America to become a dictatorship in any meaningful fashion.
 
Zangara succeeds and assassinates FDR. Garner refuses deficit spending or building up the military. Huey Long stokes lower class rage in his drive for power. Garner is harsher in his attacks on unions. This leads to a militarized response by strikers which leads to riots throughout the country. The 1936 election is grim as no one has answers. Garner and Long spar as Landon meanders.

The American economy muddles through as WWII begins. France falls, Churchill struggles to bolster morale without American aid (America will sell, but not give away support). The 1940 election brings even greater anger as Long wins the Democratic nomination to great fanfare but is assassinated, many say by big business. Riots worsen across the country. Lindbergh argues for focus at home rather than abroad.

As Germany turns it's might against the Soviets, America roils. The Japanese rampage across China and the president decides to take economic action. Many Americans see it as a means to distract Americans by an illegitimate president, reward war profiteers and send sons to die beyond the horizon. Riots increase.

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor embroiling them in a war with the US. With the US Navy suffering from the Garner years, it proves vulnerable to Japanese attacks. The loss at Midway incenses the American public as it sees nothing but losses as well as the realization Japan will control the Pacific until at least 1943.

The Soviets finally collapse in 1943. The UK, struggling financially, sue for an armistice. The US gives way to a stronger federal government to curb the violence and drive the nation to victory. The Germans watch while digesting it's spoils.

With the rift between the UK and America, the former does not aid or inspire the latter to research the atomic bomb. This turns the war in the Pacific into a Savage, near genocidal affair. By 1947, the US invades the home islands. The losses are so monstrous that the nation comes unhinged. The military, having lost so much, sacrificed so much, dealing with increasingly inept administrations and forced to even fire on American citizens, finally turn against the American government. Americans having suffered nigh on two decades, desensitized by poverty, war, and betrayal, accustomed to an increasingly authoritarian government and desperate for stability readily accept the new regime. Japan is finally broken in a cruel war by 1949. America, under a martial regime, rebuilds preparing for the threat waiting just past the Atlantic knowing the price of doing nothing.
 

Greenville

Banned
I could see a junta or military dictatorship after say a full-scale nuclear war in the 1950s or 60s, but not simply because of the Great Depression.
 
Top