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"Fascism's ascent to power across Europe in the 1920s and 1930s marks one of the greatest historical defeats of the left in all of history. Yet, this catastrophic de- feat was resisted at every turn by Marxists who tried, unsuccessfully, to push the mass communist and social democratic parties to organize an opposition to the rising movements of violent reaction. Their devastating failure paved the way for the gas chamber, decades of ruthless dictatorship, and war. This important volume offers the most complete selection of Marxist writings on fascism from this period in any language and provides invaluable lessons for contemporary readers concerned with today's far-right"--

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface to the Second Edition -- Preface to the First Edition -- Introduction -- PART I THE CRITERIA FOR LEGITIMACY -- 1 Towards a Social-scientific Concept of Legitimacy -- The different dimensions of legitimacy -- The significance of legitimacy -- Conclusion: a social or political concept? -- 2 Power and Its Need of Legitimation -- The concept of power -- The social organisation of power -- Power and legitimacy -- 3 The Normative Structure of Legitimacy -- Legitimacy derived from rules -- Legitimacy as justifiability of rules -- Legitimacy through expressed consent -- Conclusion -- The Social Construction of Legitimacy -- PART II LEGITIMACY IN THE MODERN STATE -- 5 Dimensions of State Legitimacy -- The elusiveness of legality -- Constitutional rules and their justification -- Modes of popular consent -- Conclusion -- 6 Crisis Tendencies of Political Systems -- Liberal democracy -- Liberal democracy in developing countries -- The communist model -- Types of Islamic state -- 7 Modes of Non-legitimate Power -- Revolutions and legitimacy -- Revolutionary regimes and relegitimation -- Coups d'état and military regimes -- Conclusion: the dilemmas of political legitimacy -- Legitimacy in Political Science and Political Philosophy -- PART III LEGITIMACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY -- 9 Legitimacy within the State -- Operationalising the concept of legitimacy -- Compliance with law enforcement agencies -- The comparative legitimacy of states -- The role of consent in political legitimacy -- 10 Legitimacy beyond the State -- Inter-governmental institutions and their legitimacy -- Legitimacy issues in international NGOs -- Contested legitimacy in the European Union -- Legitimacy crisis in the international financial sector -- Conclusion -- Bibliograpy -- Index -- Untitled.

As the U.S. strives to establish democracy in Iraq and contemplates its own democratic system in the wake of a series of controversial presidential elections, David Beetham offers new insights into democracy. He looks at real examples such as the role of the citizen and how large corporations affect democracy as well as contemplating the future of democracy in the developed and developing worlds.