The Problem Of Democracy In Postwar Europe

Author : Pepijn Corduwener
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2016-08-25
Category : History
ISBN : 9781134996261

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The Problem of Democracy in Postwar Europe by Pepijn Corduwener Pdf

The current perception of democratic crisis in Western Europe gives a renewed urgency to a new perspective on the way democracy was reconstructed after World War II and the principles that underpinned its postwar transformation. This study accounts for the formation of the postwar democratic order in Western Europe by studying how the main political actors in France, West Germany and Italy conceptualized democracy and strove over its meaning. Based upon a wide range of librarian and archival sources from these countries, it tracks changing conceptions of democracy among leading politicians, political parties, and leaders of social movements, and unveils how they were deeply divided over key principles of postwar democracy – such as the political party, the free market economy, representation, and civic participation. By comparing three national debates on the question what democracy meant and how it should be institutionalized and practiced, this study argues that only in the 1970s conceptions of democracy converged and key political actors accepted each other as democrats with similar conceptions of democracy. This study thereby deconstructs the myth of the quick emergence of one consensual Western European model of democracy after 1945, demonstrates that its formation was a long and contentious process in which national differences were often of crucial importance, and contributes to an enhanced understanding of the historical roots of the current sentiment of democratic crisis.

Author : Pepijn Corduwener
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 265 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2023-07-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9780192655332

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The Rise and Fall of the People's Parties by Pepijn Corduwener Pdf

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Across Europe, people are deeply concerned about the state of democracy. The Rise and Fall of the People's Parties shifts the attention away from ever-changing populist politicians that capture newspaper headlines to the centre-left and centre-right people's parties that used to buttress the democratic order over the past decades, but which are now in steep decline. Why does the crisis of these parties contribute so profoundly to today's crisis of democracy? And why were these parties so important for the stabilization and legitimation of democracy in the past century in the first place? By providing a long-term and transnational account of the history of democracy in modern Europe, The Rise and Fall of the People's Parties reveals the striking parallels between the history of democracy and the history of the people's parties since 1918. The first part of the book shows how the failure to turn traditional working-class and confessional mass parties into people's parties played a vital role in the collapse of democracy in the 1920s and 1930s. It also explores the attractiveness of the people's party ideal centred on moderation, compromise and openness to pioneering politicians in the mid-century. The second part of the book then traces the practical application and breakthrough of this ideal in the decades after World War II and shows how this contributed to the stabilization and legitimation of democracy in the postwar decades. In the final part of the book, Corduwener turns to the slow decline of the people's parties since the mid-1970s. It explores how their failure to represent volatile and polarized societies was reflected in their aim to turn into 'open' and 'flexible' parties focused primarily on providing governmental efficiency - and how this eventually turned against them by alienating their members and voters. In so doing, Corduwener offers an original and timely study of twentieth century democracy that transcends traditional party groupings, divisions between eras, and national boundaries. The book will be important reading for all historians of European democracy, as well as journalists, policymakers and practitioners interested in the current state of democracy in and outside the region today.

Author : Stephen Padgett,William E. Paterson
Publisher : Longman Publishing Group
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 1991-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0582491746

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A History of Social Democracy in Postwar Europe by Stephen Padgett,William E. Paterson Pdf

Social democratic ideology, social democratic political parties, relations with organized labour and business, and foreign policy are considered in this history of social democracy in post-war Europe.

Author : Hans Keman
Publisher : Springer
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2016-07-27
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781349252237

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The Politics of Problem-Solving in Postwar Democracies by Hans Keman Pdf

The Politics of Problem-solving in Postwar Democracies focuses explicitly on the way in which and the extent to which public policy formation in multi-party systems can be both effective and legitimate; effective in finding solutions for societal problems which are beyond the citizens capacity; and legitimate in formulating policies that are acceptable to most involved. Cross-national variations in the way political institutions work and can be conducive to political consensus and cooperative behaviour are - so it is argued and evidenced throughout the book - the key factors for successful policy-making and related problem-solving.

Author : Michael Gehler,Wolfram Kaiser
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2004-04-15
Category : History
ISBN : 0203646231

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Christian Democracy in Europe Since 1945 by Michael Gehler,Wolfram Kaiser Pdf

For the first time, this book reveals the actual roles of the Christian Democratic (CD) parties in postwar Europe from a pan-European perspective. It shows how Christian Democratic parties became the dominant political force in postwar Western Europe, and how the European People's Party is currently the largest group in the European Parliament. CD parties and political leaders like Adenauer, Schuman and De Gasperi played a particularly important role in the evolution of the 'core Europe' of the EEC/EC after 1945. Key chapters address the same questions about the parties' membership and social organization; their economic and social policies; and their European and international policies during the Cold War. The book also includes two survey chapters setting out the international political context for CD parties and comparing their postwar development, and two chapters on their transnational party cooperation after 1945. This is the companion volume to Political Catholicism in Europe 1918-1945.

Author : Michael Gehler,Wolfram Kaiser
Publisher : Psychology Press
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0714656623

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Christian Democracy in Europe Since 1945 by Michael Gehler,Wolfram Kaiser Pdf

For the first time, this book reveals the actual roles of the Christian Democratic (CD) parties in postwar Europe from a pan-European perspective. It shows how Christian Democratic parties became the dominant political force in postwar Western Europe, and how the European People's Party is currently the largest group in the European Parliament. CD parties and political leaders like Adenauer, Schuman and De Gasperi played a particularly important role in the evolution of the 'core Europe' of the EEC/EC after 1945. Key chapters address the same questions about the parties' membership and social organization; their economic and social policies; and their European and international policies during the Cold War. The book also includes two survey chapters setting out the international political context for CD parties and comparing their postwar development, and two chapters on their transnational party cooperation after 1945. This is the companion volume to Political Catholicism in Europe 1918-1945.

Author : Martin Conway
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2022-06-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9780691204598

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Western Europe’s Democratic Age by Martin Conway Pdf

A major new history of how democracy became the dominant political force in Europe in the second half of the twentieth century What happened in the years following World War II to create a democratic revolution in the western half of Europe? In Western Europe's Democratic Age, Martin Conway provides an innovative new account of how a stable, durable, and remarkably uniform model of parliamentary democracy emerged in Western Europe—and how this democratic ascendancy held fast until the latter decades of the twentieth century. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Conway describes how Western Europe's postwar democratic order was built by elite, intellectual, and popular forces. Much more than the consequence of the defeat of fascism and the rejection of Communism, this democratic order rested on universal male and female suffrage, but also on new forms of state authority and new political forces—primarily Christian and social democratic—that espoused democratic values. Above all, it gained the support of the people, for whom democracy provided a new model of citizenship that reflected the aspirations of a more prosperous society. This democratic order did not, however, endure. Its hierarchies of class, gender, and race, which initially gave it its strength, as well as the strains of decolonization and social change, led to an explosion of demands for greater democratic freedoms in the 1960s, and to the much more contested democratic politics of Europe in the late twentieth century. Western Europe's Democratic Age is a compelling history that sheds new light not only on the past of European democracy but also on the unresolved question of its future.

Author : Sheri Berman
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2019-01-04
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780199373208

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Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe by Sheri Berman Pdf

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 it competed with various forms of dictatorship. Now, though, the entire continent was in the democratic camp for the first time in history. But within a decade, this story had already begun to unravel. Some of the continent's newer democracies slid back towards dictatorship, while citizens in many of its older democracies began questioning democracy's functioning and even its legitimacy. And of course it is not merely in Europe where democracy is under siege. Across the globe the immense optimism accompanying the post-Cold War democratic wave has been replaced by pessimism. Many new democracies in Latin America, Africa, and Asia began "backsliding," while the Arab Spring quickly turned into the Arab winter. The victory of Donald Trump led many to wonder if it represented a threat to the future of liberal democracy in the United States. Indeed, it is increasingly common today for leaders, intellectuals, commentators and others to claim that rather than democracy, some form dictatorship or illiberal democracy is the wave of the future. In Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe, Sheri Berman traces the long history of democracy in its cradle, Europe. She explains that in fact, just about every democratic wave in Europe initially failed, either collapsing in upon itself or succumbing to the forces of reaction. Yet even when democratic waves failed, there were always some achievements that lasted. Even the most virulently reactionary regimes could not suppress every element of democratic progress. Panoramic in scope, Berman takes readers through two centuries of turmoil: revolution, fascism, civil war, and - -finally -- the emergence of liberal democratic Europe in the postwar era. A magisterial retelling of modern European political history, Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe not explains how democracy actually develops, but how we should interpret the current wave of illiberalism sweeping Europe and the rest of the world.

Author : Tony Judt
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 1000 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2006-09-05
Category : History
ISBN : 0143037757

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Postwar by Tony Judt Pdf

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize • Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award • One of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of the Year “Impressive . . . Mr. Judt writes with enormous authority.” —The Wall Street Journal “Magisterial . . . It is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive, authoritative, and yes, readable postwar history.” —The Boston Globe Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change-all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy. Judt's book, Ill Fares the Land, republished in 2021 featuring a new preface by bestselling author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Author : Francis Fukuyama
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 464 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2006-03-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781416531784

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End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama Pdf

Ever since its first publication in 1992, The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. Francis Fukuyama's prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the end of the Cold War. Now updated with a new afterword, The End of History and the Last Man is a modern classic.

Author : Anne Applebaum
Publisher : Signal
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2020-07-21
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780771005862

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Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum Pdf

A finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize One of Back Obama's Favourite Books of the Year A Pulitzer Prize–winning historian explains, with electrifying clarity, why elites in democracies around the world are turning toward nationalism and authoritarianism. From the United States and Britain to continental Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege, while authoritarianism is on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum, an award-winning historian of Soviet atrocities who was one of the first American journalists to raise an alarm about antidemocratic trends in the West, explains the lure of nationalism and autocracy. In this captivating essay, she contends that political systems with radically simple beliefs are inherently appealing, especially when they benefit the loyal to the exclusion of everyone else. Despotic leaders do not rule alone; they rely on political allies, bureaucrats, and media figures to pave their way and support their rule. The authoritarian and nationalist parties that have arisen within modern democracies offer new paths to wealth or power for their adherents. Applebaum describes many of the new advocates of illiberalism in countries around the world, showing how they use conspiracy theory, political polarization, social media, and even nostalgia to change their societies. Elegantly written and urgently argued, Twilight of Democracy is a brilliant dissection of a world-shaking shift and a stirring glimpse of the road back to democratic values.

Author : Juan J. Linz,Alfred Stepan
Publisher : JHU Press
Page : 508 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 1996-08-16
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 0801851580

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Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation by Juan J. Linz,Alfred Stepan Pdf

5. Actors and contexts

Author : Agnes Headlam-Morley
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 326 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 1929
Category : Constitutions
ISBN : UOM:39015062336972

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The New Democratic Constitutions of Europe by Agnes Headlam-Morley Pdf

Author : Joanna Regulska,Bonnie G. Smith
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 318 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2012-03-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781136454806

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Women and Gender in Postwar Europe by Joanna Regulska,Bonnie G. Smith Pdf

Women and Gender in Postwar Europe charts the experiences of women across Europe from 1945 to the present day. Europe at the end of World War II was a sorry testimony to the human condition; awash in corpses, the infrastructure devastated, food and fuel in such short supply. From Soviet Union to the United Kingdom and Ireland the vast majority of citizens on whom survival depended, in the postwar years, were women. This book charts the involvement of women in postwar reconstruction through the Cold War and post Cold-War years with chapters on the economic, social, and political dynamism that characterized Europe from the 1950s onwards, and goes on to look at the woman’s place in a rebuilt Europe that was both more prosperous and as tension-filled as before. The chapters both look at broad trends across both eastern and western Europe; such as the horrific aftermath of World War II, but also present individual case studies that illustrate those broad trends in the historical development of women’s lives and gender roles. The case studies show difference and diversity across Europe whilst also setting the experience of women in a particular country within the broader historical issues and trends, in such topics as work, professionalization, sexuality, consumerism, migration, and activism. The introduction and conclusion provide an overview that integrates the chapters into the more general history of this important period. This will be an essential resource for students of women and gender studies and for post 1945 courses.

Author : Carlo Invernizzi Accetti
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2019-10-03
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781108421669

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What is Christian Democracy? by Carlo Invernizzi Accetti Pdf

A comprehensive global study of the political ideology of Christian Democracy, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.