Assault On Democracy: Communism, Fascism, And Authoritarianism During The Interwar Years

Description

The interwar years saw the greatest reversal of political liberalization and democratization in modern history. Why and how did dictatorship proliferate throughout Europe and Latin America in the 1920s and 1930s? Blending perspectives from history, comparative politics, and cognitive psychology, Kurt Weyland argues that the Russian Revolution sparked powerful elite groupings that, fearing communism, aimed to suppress imitation attempts inspired by Lenin's success. Fears of Communism fueled doubts about the defensive capacity of liberal democracy, strengthened the ideological right, and prompted the rise of fascism in many countries. Yet, as fascist movements spread, their extremity and violence also sparked conservative backlash that often blocked their seizure of power. Weyland teases out the differences across countries, tracing how the resulting conflicts led to the imposition of fascist totalitarianism in Italy and Germany and the installation of conservative authoritarianism in Eastern and Southern Europe and Latin America. Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 2 Title - Full......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Tables......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 12 1 Introduction The Puzzle: Reverse Waves of Political Reaction......Page 14 2 Theory: The Double Deterrent Effect and the Bounds of Rationality......Page 52 3 The Soviet Precedent and the Wave of Isomorphic Emulation Efforts......Page 88 4 The Suppression of Isomorphic Emulation Efforts and Its Limited Regime Effects......Page 114 5 Persistence of the Communist Threat and Rising Appeal of Fascism......Page 144 6 The German Exception: Emulating Full-Scale Fascism......Page 171 7 The Spread of Fascist Movements – Yet of Authoritarian Regimes......Page 206 8 Conservative–Fascist Relations and the Autocratic Reverse Wave......Page 241 9 The Edges of the Autocratic Wave: Battered Democracy and Populist Authoritarianism......Page 304 10 Conclusion......Page 327 Bibliography......Page 346 Index......Page 380