Building the European ‘New Order’

Abstract Military occupation is the maximum level of political intervention based on coercion, but even under Axis rule, the institutional design of dictatorships by their ‘collaborationist’ elites was influenced by different models and political families. Military occupation opened a window of opportunity for the takeover of power by different segments of authoritarian and fascist elites, and the tension and forced pacts between different projects of dictatorial institutionalizations were a clear sign of this dynamic process. This article examines how the complicated relationship between the radical right, authoritarian conservatives and fascists were present in the institutional crafting of new regimes.