With no democratic experience and severe economic problems many Europeans saw dictatorship as the only way to prevent instability.
The conjugation of the verb "design" to "designed", without any auxiliary verb such as "have" or "do", shows the use of the 'simple past" tense (also known as preterite), whose principal function is to place a completed action or situation in a moment before "now".
What tense is the underlined verb in the sentence? The architect designed a daring structure.
D. Past
I believe the answer is C. It would have the most economic effect.