Economic and Political Reactions to the World Economic Crisis of the 1930s in Six European Countries

In this article economic and political responses to the Depression in Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Britain are analyzed. Each country applied a specific mixture of deflationary policies coupled with import restrictions, subventions and—later on—some active employment measures. At best these measures contributed to the recovery of the economy when it was already on its way back. Like the measures of economic crisis, electoral volatility, and government stability previously examined, economic policy did not introduce sufficient variation between the six countries to “account for” the collapse or survival of the polity under the impact of the Depression. In our view, the processes of national consensus formation provide the distinguishing variable for understanding on a comparative base the courses and mechanisms of polity survival or collapse. The political, economic, and societal cleavages separating major actors such as labor, business, agriculture, and the state from each other and the strategies pursued in forging a compromise along different class lines are of particular importance here.