Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Régime to the Present Day

Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe examines the development of various political regimes in Europe from the ancien régime up through the present day. It analyzes why democracy flourishes at some times and in some places but not others and draws lessons from European history that can help us better understand the political situation the world finds itself in today.

Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe examines the development of various political regimes in Europe from the ancien régime up through the present day. It analyzes why democracy flourishes at some times and in some places but not others and draws lessons from European history that can help us better understand the political situation the world finds itself in today.

At the end of the twentieth century, many believed the story of European political development had come to an end. Modern democracy began in Europe, but for hundreds of years, dictatorship rather than democracy had been the norm. Now, though, the entire continent was in the democratic camp for the first time. But by the beginning of the twenty-first century the story had already begun to unravel. Some of the continent's newer democracies were backsliding toward dictatorship, while citizens in many of its older democracies began questioning democracy's functioning and even legitimacy. Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe traces the long history of democracy in its cradle, Europe. It takes readers through more than two centuries of turmoil, revolutions, fascism, civil wars, communism and-finally-the rebuilding of democracy in Western Europe after 1945 and the emergence of democracy in Eastern Europe after 1989. Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe explains why democracy proved so difficult to achieve in Europe and draws lessons from Europe's past that can help us understand the conditions necessary for democracy to flourish.