ABSTRACT
Marked discontinuities in authority provide the opportunity for totalitarian elites to seize power in the name of the masses, and thereby subvert democratic processes. Sharp discontinuities in community create the masses which totalitarian elites can utilize in their search for total power. The links between rural communities and the larger society tend to disintegrate during periods of urbanization, as in the decline of the rural church, newspaper, political representative, and other intermediate relations. Since rapid urbanization characteristically accompanies rapid, industrialization, examination of the mass-producing consequences of the growth of industry will also shed further light on the relation between urbanization and mass behavior. Industrialization and urbanization are mass-producing to the extent that they involve sharp discontinuities in community, that is, to the extent that they produce rootlessness. In contrast to Norway, Denmark experienced more gradual industrialization; and the labor movement of this country followed more moderate paths.
