Could a peaceful transition from Nazi Germany to a democratic one be possible?

Franco’s Spain wasn’t really fascist, just your typical authoritarian regime supported by a broad right-wing coalition consisting of monarchists, reactionaries, conservative catholics as well as fascist elements. Then there’s the fact that Franco was (de facto) in the western camp after WW2, which mostly consisted of liberal democracies. I don’t think Spain (or Portugal, for that matter) would have experienced democratic revolutions in a Europe dominated by the Nazis and other fascist regimes.

That's convincing too, but then why did the USSR relatively peacefully melt?

I think there should be an alternative, yes, but the alternative doesn't necessarily have to be the predominant one in your camp. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, etc. The Spaniards and the Portuguese had more direct exposure to the democracies' customs, and most importantly to their wealth. The Russians' exposure was more limited and delayed, yet I think that when they were seduced by the novelties, they did believe they'd fare better, and soon.

Note, to continue the parallel, that while the non-Russian ethnicities pushed for independence, the key factor was that the Russians themselves wanted a change. In a Nazi-dominated Europe, it matters little if the Danes, or the Spaniards, let alone the Ukrainans, want change; but if the Germans want it...
 
That's convincing too, but then why did the USSR relatively peacefully melt?

I think there should be an alternative, yes, but the alternative doesn't necessarily have to be the predominant one in your camp. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, etc. The Spaniards and the Portuguese had more direct exposure to the democracies' customs, and most importantly to their wealth. The Russians' exposure was more limited and delayed, yet I think that when they were seduced by the novelties, they did believe they'd fare better, and soon.

Note, to continue the parallel, that while the non-Russian ethnicities pushed for independence, the key factor was that the Russians themselves wanted a change. In a Nazi-dominated Europe, it matters little if the Danes, or the Spaniards, let alone the Ukrainans, want change; but if the Germans want it...

That’s true. But there’s one big difference between a hypothetical post-war Nazi-Germany and the Soviet Union: The former will likely have higher living standards than the latter, since it would at its core still be a market economy (though probably with lots of government intervention, like modern China). For example, I doubt that people in Nazi Germany would experience huge breadlines (at least during peace time). It’s economic footing would have been much firmer, which is why I think that in the long term fascism could have been a much more dangerous enemy to liberalism than communism ever was.

Of course, an argument could be made that higher living standards would make an eventual liberalization even more likely. But then again, China shows that ‘liberalization’ doesn’t have to mean adopting liberal democracy.
 
If spain could manage it i don't see how it count be possible for Germany too, not that anybody would like what 40+ years of Nazism would do to Germany or Europe as a hole.
 
I am writing my own Nazi victory TL, and my answer is...no.

Nazism is a system that relies on terror to subjugate people, and it was horribly mismanaged economically. If you tried to open up the system, it would collapse under a weight of economic chaos and disaster.
 
That’s true. But there’s one big difference between a hypothetical post-war Nazi-Germany and the Soviet Union: The former will likely have higher living standards than the latter, since it would at its core still be a market economy (though probably with lots of government intervention, like modern China). For example, I doubt that people in Nazi Germany would experience huge breadlines (at least during peace time). It’s economic footing would have been much firmer, which is why I think that in the long term fascism could have been a much more dangerous enemy to liberalism than communism ever was.

Of course, an argument could be made that higher living standards would make an eventual liberalization even more likely. But then again, China shows that ‘liberalization’ doesn’t have to mean adopting liberal democracy.

I guess it would depend on whether lebensraum actually worked. Could the Germans have been able to properly use those lands, or would occupying them be greater then the cost?
 
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