American Constitutionalism Heard Round the World, 1776-1989: A Global Perspective

9. Fifth Echo: World War I to World War II, 1919–1945

250 9 Fifth Echo World War I to World War II, 1919–1945 The fifth “echo” occurred in the era after World War I when there was an outbreak of democracy in Europe. During this time when monarchies were transformed into republics, many resorted to using features of the American model, issuing declarations of independence, calling constitutional conventions, adopting written constitutions, and incorporating bills of rights in their charters. Besides the emergence of democracy , hopes ran high for peace in the coming new world order. The Allied victory resulted in a burst of democracy not seen in Europe since 1848. Many conservative monarchies were swept away. Before World War I, there had been nineteen monarchies and three republics, but after 1922, there were fourteen republics, thirteen monarchies, and two regencies . As a leader in the drive for democracy, the United States was more popular than ever before, and the reputation of American constitutionalism soared. With the rising tide of republics came the “second significant moment” in the number of declarations of independence outside the United States. With the breakup of the huge Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires, newly independent states turned again to Jefferson’s manifesto. Czechoslovakia was typical of the new states that imitated or cited the American Declaration in Europe, and after President Woodrow Wilson’s statement regarding the “self-determination of nations,” such declarations could be heard from “the Balkans to Korea.”1 The bill of rights tradition that American constitutionalism had established along with Britain and France also made great strides. Germany’s Weimar Constitution of 1919 led the way. During the decade after the end of the war, constitutions in Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1920, Poland in 1921, Greece in 1927, and Lithuania in 1928 all included a bill of rights in their charters.2 World War I to World War II 251 The rising tide of democracy was evidenced also in the spread of universal suffrage in the Western world, in the United States, Britain, Germany , and Russia, as well as in some smaller European states. One interesting development was that for the first time, the franchise was extended to women in some countries. Democracy, it seems, had suddenly become gender blind. What started off propitiously as a drive for greater democracy, however , deteriorated within a decade. Many newborn nation-states emerging from the breakup of European empires discovered they were ill prepared to become democracies, and before long, the new totalitarian ideologies— communism, fascism, and Nazism—overwhelmed many of them. In addition , the Great Depression had a shattering effect on all constitutional movements. With these developments, American constitutional influence suffered a decline well before the beginning of World War II. America and Europe: The Immediate Post—World War I Years American constitutionalism became identified more closely with democracy as the war was coming to an end. Two important developments in 1917 determined its outcome: Russia withdrew from the war and America entered it. The Russian Revolution—a truly cataclysmic event—changed the nature of the war by making it an ideological as well as a military struggle. President Woodrow Wilson expressed his ideas about the new world order he envisioned in his speech before Congress declaring war against Germany. The conflict, he stated, was being waged to make the world “safe for democracy.” Despite Wilson’s hopeful rhetoric that America might become the successful model for newly emerging nation-states on the basis of the people’s self-determination, he was disappointed.3 First, he failed to realize that the ethnic, religious, and economic divisions in these multiethnic empires prevented them from following America’s example. Because the United States had had almost a century and a half to assimilate such minorities into its two-party system, there were no serious German parties, Catholic parties, or communist parties in America. Europe’s populations, however, often formed parties in the newly independent states that represented separate ethnic, religious, or economic constituencies. The dawn of democracy proved to be false for another reason. None of the new countries in Europe came into being as the result of a long and 252 World War I to World War II persistent revolutionary movement giving rise to a strong sense of identity. Instead, several nation-states had simply been created artificially after the recent breakup of old empires. Four of them were successor states from the Hapsburg empire: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia; and five...