The Conditions of Democracy in Europe 1919-39

FRANK AAREBROT Institute of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway FOLKO ARENDS Former Research Assistant, Institute of Political Science, Marburg, Germany WALTER BERNECKER Professor, Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg, Chair of Foreign Studies JOHN BRADLEY Historian, Professor Emeritus, Pauillac, France DAVID CAMPBELL, DR. Institute for Advanced Studies, Wien, Austria ANTONIO COSTA PINTO Professor, Instituto Superior de Ciencias do Trabalho e da Empresa, Lisboa, Portugal GISELE DE MEUR Professor, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium MICHEL DOBRY Professor, Universite Nanterre X, Paris, France STEPHEN FISCHER-GALATI Professor Emeritus, Bradenton, USA PETER GERLICH Professor, Institute fur Staats- und Politikwissenschaft, Wien, Austria JERZY HOLZER Professor, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland GABRIELLA ILONSZKI Professor, Department of Political Science, Budapest University of Economic Sciences, Budapest, Hungary LAURI KARVONEN Professor, Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway GERHARD KA MMEL DR. Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut der Bundeswehr, Strausberg, Germany ULF LINDSTRA-M Professor, Institute of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, Norway JUAN LINZ Professor, Yale University, USA MARCO TARCHI Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Florence, Italy TOOMAS VARRAK DR. Tallinn, Estland ALLAN ZINK DR. Research Assistant, Institute of Political Science, Marburg, Germany

Why did democracy survive in some European countries between the wars while fascism or authoritarianism emerged elsewhere?Why did democracy survive in some European countries between the wars while fascism or authoritarianism emerged elsewhere? This innovative study approaches this question through the comparative analysis of the inter-war experience of eighteen countries within a common comprehensive analytical framework. It combines (social and economic) structure- and (political) actor-related aspects to provide detailed historical accounts of each case which serve as background information for the systematic testing of major theories of fascism and democracy.