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

399 Pages·1.829 MB·English

by  Kurt Weyland

Assault on Democracy
The interwar years saw the greatest reversal of political liberalization
anddemocratizationinmodernhistory.Whyandhowdiddictatorship
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
Revolutionsparkedpowerfulelitegroupingsthat,fearingcommunism,
aimedtosuppressimitationattemptsinspiredbyLenin’ssuccess.Fears
of communism fueled doubts about the defensive capacity of liberal
democracy,strengthenedtheideologicalright,andpromptedtheriseof
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 impos-
itionoffascisttotalitarianisminItalyandGermanyandtheinstallation
of conservative authoritarianism in Eastern and Southern Europe and
LatinAmerica.
Kurt Weyland is Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts in the
Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin. He is the
authoroffiveotherbooksandapproximatelyfiftyjournalarticlesand
bookchapters.Hisbook,MakingWaves(CambridgeUniversityPress,
2014) won Best Book Award from APSA’s Comparative
Democratizationsection.

Assault on Democracy
Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism
During the Interwar Years
KURT WEYLAND
UniversityofTexasatAustin
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Contents
List of Tables page vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction:ThePuzzle:ReverseWavesofPoliticalReaction 1
2 Theory:The Double Deterrent Effect and the Bounds
of Rationality 39
3 The Soviet Precedent and the Wave of Isomorphic
Emulation Efforts 75
4 The Suppression of Isomorphic Emulation Efforts andIts
Limited RegimeEffects 101
5 Persistence of the Communist Threat and Rising Appeal
of Fascism 131
6 The German Exception: Emulating Full-Scale Fascism 158
7 The Spreadof FascistMovements – Yet of
Authoritarian Regimes 193
8 Conservative–FascistRelations andtheAutocratic
Reverse Wave 228
9 The Edges ofthe Autocratic Wave: Battered Democracy
and Populist Authoritarianism 291
10 Conclusion 314
Bibliography 333
Index 367
v

Tables
1.1 Installation ofreactionary autocraciesduring
theinterwar years page 4
2.1 Pathwaysto reactionary autocracy during
theinterwar years 64
vii

Preface
Every German who grew up in the post–WWII era faced the impossible
taskofcomingtogripswithourterriblerecentpast,themassivedestruc-
tionandself-destruction,theunspeakableatrocitiesandcrimes.Although
IescapedtotheUnitedStatesandturnedtothestudyofLatinAmerica,it
wasunavoidableto return tothistask. AfterIdesigned myowntheoret-
ical approach to political regime change and tested it by examining a
range of other cases inmy last two books, I finally felt ready. This study
therefore holds a very deep personal meaning. For this reason, it is
dedicated to my late father, Dr. Helmut Weyland, who grew up during
the interwar years and who at the current age of my sons had already
undergone experiences, as a regular soldier and then a POW, that he
would spend the rest of his life trying to cope with. The book is also
dedicated to my sons, Andreas and Nikolas Weyland, who – decades
later –stilllive underthe shadowof the German past.
ix