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"This book provides a novel account of the decades following the Second World War in the western half of Europe through the prism of its democratisation. Previous experiences of democracy in Europe had not tended to end well; but Western Europe after 1945 witnessed the establishment of a stable, durable, and remarkably uniform model of rather conservative parliamentary democracy. This was the product of much more than the defeat of fascism and the rejection of Communism. It rested on the construction of new forms of state authority, new policies of social and economic development, and the emergence of political forces - primarily Socialism and Christian democracy - which found a common interest in the new model of democracy. It also gained the support of the people. The broad cross-class alliance which developed in much of Western Europe behind democracy after 1945 was a gradual process, but one which rested on its combination of respect for established material interests and the emergence of new and more individualist notions of citizenship. Based on a wide range of primary and secondary material from throughout Western Europe, this is not a chronological account of the post-war era, or still less a country-by-country survey; instead, it analyses Western Europe's conversion to democracy through five analytical chapters which consider its construction, its intellectual ideas, its social culture, its Socialist and Christian democratic variants, and finally the arguments about democracy which developed during the 1960s. The book concludes with an epilogue which discusses the evolution of democracy in Europe since the 1960s"--

The concept of fragility provides an alternative means of approaching the history of democracy, which has often been seen as the ineluctable consequence of Europe's social and political modernisation. This is especially so in Scandinavia, as well as in Finland, where the emergence of a particular Nordic model of democracy from the early decades of the twentieth century onwards has often been explained with reference to embedded traditions of local self-government and long-term trends towards social egalitarianism. In contrast, this article emphasises the tensions present within the practices and understandings of democracy in the principal states of Scandinavia during the twentieth century. In doing so, it provides an introduction to the articles that compose this Special Issue, as well as contributing to the wider literature on the fragility of present-day structures of democracy.

This brief response discusses the principal themes raised by the three commentaries. In particular, it re-assesses my interpretation in The Sorrows of Belgium (2012) of the political normalisation of Belgium which occurred after the Second World War, the nature of the Belgian national and political community in the aftermath of the German occupation, and the way in which the events of the war years may have contributed to the democratic reconstruction of the Belgian nation-state.RepliekIn deze korte reactie gaat Martin Conway in op de belangrijkste thema's die in de drie commentaren aan de orde zijn gesteld. Het artikel besteedt in het bijzonder aandacht aan zijn interpretatie van de terugkeer naar politieke normaliteit na de Duitse bezetting in België, en de manier waarop de oorlog mogelijk een bijdrage heeft geleverd aan de democratische reconstructie van de Belgische natiestaat, zoals dit in zijn boek The Sorrows of Belgium (2012) aan de orde komt.

This brief response discusses the principal themes raised by the three commentaries. In particular, it re-assesses my interpretation in The Sorrows of Belgium (2012) of the political normalisation of Belgium which occurred after the Second World War, the nature of the Belgian national and political community in the aftermath of the German occupation, and the way in which the events of the war years may have contributed to the democratic reconstruction of the Belgian nation-state. This response is part of the discussion forum 'The Sorrows of Belgium' (Martin Conway).RepliekIn deze korte reactie gaat Martin Conway in op de belangrijkste thema's die in de drie commentaren aan de orde zijn gesteld. Het artikel besteedt in het bijzonder aandacht aan zijn interpretatie van de terugkeer naar politieke normaliteit na de Duitse bezetting in België, en de manier waarop de oorlog mogelijk een bijdrage heeft geleverd aan de democratische reconstructie van de Belgische natiestaat, zoals dit in zijn boek The Sorrows of Belgium (2012) aan de orde komt. Deze repliek maakt deel uit van het discussiedossier 'The Sorrows of Belgium' (Martin Conway).