Authoritarianism and Democracy in Europe, 1919-39

GISAeLE DE MEUR Professor, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium STEPHEN FISCHER-GALATI Professor Emeritus, Bradenton, USA JERZY HOLZER Professor, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland LAURI KARVONEN Professor, Department of Comparative Politics, Abo Academy, Finland GERHARD KA MMEL Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut der Bundeswehr, Strausberg, Germany SVEN QUENTER Former Research Assistant, Institute of Political Science, Marburg, Germany THOMAS SAALFELD Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Kent, Canterbury JOHN D. STEPHENS Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill MARCO TARCHI Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Florence, Italy MARK R. THOMPSON Professor, Universitat Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany ALLAN ZINK Former Research Assistant, Institute of Political Science, Marburg, Germany

Authoritarianism and Democracy in Europe, 1919-39 offers a comprehensive analysis of the survival or breakdown of democracy in interwar Europe.Authoritarianism and Democracy in Europe, 1919-39 offers a comprehensive analysis of the survival or breakdown of democracy in interwar Europe. The contributors explore factors such as the historical, social-structural and political-cultural backgrounds of the policies that European countries attempted to implement to counter the world economic crisis of 1929. The analysis serves as an important backdrop for the assessment of current democratic developments in former communist Europe and highlights some of the problems and risks involved in the transition process.