In the first half of the twentieth century there were competing ideologies about how best to govern a nation—democracy, fascism, and socialism. Fascism— particularly as seen in Spain under Franco and Italy under Mussolini—is defined by an extreme form of nationalism in which the media is under complete control of the state and individual rights are limited. It also generally features a totalitarian leader whose authority cannot be questioned.

All of these countries were ruled by Fascism at some point in the twentieth century except Russia, which transitioned first from monarchy to socialism, and then towards the end of the twentieth century (with the fall of the Soviet Union) to limited democracy.