Russia and Austria-Hungary ruled their peoples directly by bureaucracy and decree

Evidence

Contempt for law became characteristic of all movements. Though more fully articulated in Pan-Slavism than in Pan-Germanism it reflected the actual conditions of rule in both Russia and Austria-Hungary. To describe these two despotisms, the only ones left in Europe at the outbreak of the first World War, in terms of multinational states gives only one part of the picture. As much as for their rule over multinational territories they were distinguished from other governments in that they governed the peoples directly (and not only exploited them) by a bureaucracy; parties played insignificant roles, and parliaments had no legislative functions; the state ruled through an administration that applied decrees. The significance of Parliament for the Dual Monarchy was little more than that of a not too bright debating society. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 618

Categorization

• XREF: This model of rule-by-decree versus rule-by-law connects to Arendt’s later account of totalitarian lawlessness and to readings on how modern bureaucratic rationality enables mass exclusion.