Domestic Economic and Social Policies

Authoritarian regimes justified their power partly by promising to transform their societies and economies. Their domestic policies reveal both genuine ambition and the human costs of pursuing rapid, state-directed change.

Economic transformation

Economic goals differed by ideology but shared a drive for state control and national strength. The Soviet Union under Stalin pursued rapid industrialization through the Five-Year Plans from 1928, setting ambitious targets for coal, steel, and machinery, and building new industrial centers such as Magnitogorsk. Agriculture was collectivized, forcing peasants into collective farms (kolkhozes) to feed the cities and finance industry; the human cost included famine and the destruction of the kulaks. Mao's China attempted its own leap with the Great L