Conclusions

Abstract

Several observers have recently invoked interwar political developments to make the case that even established democracies are fragile. The main takeaway point from our analyses is pretty much the opposite, namely, that democracies have proven remarkably resilient if they have had time to become rooted and/or have strong associational landscapes. Crises—even as devastating as the Great Depression and the appeal of totalitarian movements—had little bite under such circumstances. It was only in new democracies with weak parties and civil societies that the economic, political, and social dislocations of the 1920s and 1930s spelled the end of democracy. On this basis, recent warnings about the fragility of contemporary democracies in Western Europe and North America seem exaggerated. At least, they cannot be sustained by interwar evidence.